Macedonia opposition celebrates win

MACEDONIA: Macedonia's conservative opposition party is celebrating victory in general elections praised by the European Union for being free from serious violence.

The generally calm conduct of the poll, which followed isolated armed attacks on party offices during campaigning, kept the country of two million people on track for eventual EU and Nato membership, five years after it almost collapsed into civil war.

"Our government will focus on improving the economic situation, to fight corruption and crime and raise the standard of living," said Nikola Gruevski (35), leader of the victorious VMRO-DPMNE party that took 55 of parliament's 120 seats.

It will now begin coalition talks with one of the parties representing Macedonia's 500,000 ethnic Albanians, many of whom backed rebel forces in 2001 when they seized large swathes of the country in clashes with mostly Slav security services.

They ceased hostilities in a deal brokered by the EU and Nato that promised Albanians more rights and political representation, but many still complain of discrimination.

The outgoing government of Social Democrat Vlado Buckovski, which won 30 seats in Wednesday's election, included an ethnic-Albanian party but was criticised for failing for root out corruption or alleviate pervasive poverty.

To the relief of international election monitors, Mr Buckovski quickly admitted defeat and called on Mr Gruevski to form a government, before adding: "If he can't do it, then we are here." The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said yesterday that the vote had been "largely democratic" despite some cases of attempted vote-buying, ballot-stuffing and intimidation.

"Yesterday, the citizens could and did decide on the political direction of their country in a generally democratic fashion," Mevlut Cavusoglu, the leader of a Council of Europe parliamentary delegation, said in a statement released by the OSCE. "The serious, but isolated irregularities observed should not be allowed to overshadow the democratic progress made."

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn added: "I welcome the orderly electoral process, marking a further step in the consolidation of the country's democracy. The high turnout and the statements by party leaders were important signals of the political maturity of the country." The Democratic Union for Integration - which won most of the ethnic Albanian vote - said it was ready to forge a coalition with Mr Gruevski, a former finance minister, boxer and actor, who has pledged to boost Macedonia's economy and slash a 36 per cent unemployment rate.