Macedonian ruling VMRO-DPMNE claims election win
Baku, June 6 (AZERTAC). Macedonia`s conservative ruling party, the VMRO-DPMNE, claimed victory in Sunday`s early parliamentary elections but will probably have to seek coalition partners to form a stable government.
"This press conference is dedicated to announcing the victory of VMRO-DPMNE. Nikola Gruevski remains the prime minister of Macedonia," Zlatko Gorcev, a member of the party`s executive committee, told reporters.
"From tomorrow we continue with our obligation to help the citizens," Gruevski said.
The party`s main tasks will be to revive the economy, fight unemployment and poverty, and speed up the Balkan country`s drive to join the European Union and NATO.
The election commission said on its website that, with 81 percent of the votes counted, the VMRO-DPMNE had won 39 percent, and its main opponents, the Social Democrats (SDSM), 32 percent.
The VMRO-DPMNE said it had won 55 of the 123 seats in parliament.
Analysts say the VMRO-DPMNE will probably seek as its coalition partner the party that wins the most votes among the
ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up one third of Macedonia`s two million population.
Some 1.8 million Macedonians voted peacefully despite accusations of fraud and intimidation. The VMRO-DPMNE, led by the populist Gruevski, and the SDSM accused each other during the campaign of plotting Election Day violence.
The long-running row between the two parties began in January when the opposition boycotted parliament to protest against a government crackdown on a pro-opposition TV station and three newspapers -- leading to Sunday`s early election.
The VMRO-DPMNE, in power for the past five years, will probably join forces with the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), the main party representing the ethnic Albanians, which has been part of the ruling coalition since 2008.
Macedonia, one of Europe`s poorest countries, survived the global financial crisis almost untouched, but one third of its people live below the poverty line and, with unemployment above 30 percent, economic reforms remain a key priority.
The economy grew by 1 percent last year, and the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast economic expansion of around 3 percent this year.
Macedonia became an EU candidate state in 2005, but so far it has failed to open membership talks because of Greek objections to the former Yugoslav republic`s name.
Athens rejects the name Macedonia because it says it implies territorial ambitions towards Greece`s own Northern Province of Macedonia, birthplace of Alexander the Great.
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