Macedonia’s Ruling Party Declares Election Victory


Macedonia’s ruling VMRO DPMNE party has declared victory in Sunday's general elections, claiming they have won almost half of the seats in the parliament.

Sinisa Jakov Marusic
Skopje

Ruling party supporters celebrating in Skopje Photo by: Ognen Teofilovski


"The VMRO DPMNE-led coalition has won these elections," Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski told supporters late on Sunday.

"This victory means that most citizens of Macedonia have recognised that the VMRO, even at a time of crisis and in the most difficult circumstances, knows how to deal with the country's problems," he added in a speech at the press centre in downtown Skopje.

While the opposition Social Democrats have conceded the race, they say that they are pleased because they expect their number of seats in the parliament to jump from 18 to more than 45.

"The battle goes on, see you at the next elections," said Gordan Georgiev, vice president of the Social Democrats.

The centre-right VMRO DPMNE has claimed victory in all six electoral districts over its bitter rivals, the Social Democrats, who are led by the former Macedonian president Branko Crvenkovski.

Their calculations show that they have secured 55 MP seats in the 123-seat parliament and that the Social Democrats will win 39. Before the poll, the ruling party held 63 seats in the 120-seat assembly and the main opposition held 18.

People went out to celebrate just as the party announced its victory Photo by Ognen Teofilovski


Meanwhile, the State Electoral Commission has come out with partial preliminary results from Sunday's poll. Of the 86 per cent of votes that have been counted, VMRO DPMNE has won 351,885 votes, while the Social Democrats have won 291,679.

The Social Democrats say that the results are much tighter than at the last snap poll, held in 2008, when the VMRO DPMNE won a landslide victory. That election gave the opposition only 18 MP seats in parliament.

The Social Democrats have said that according to their calculations, out of the 50 per cent of ballots counted so far, their party has won 284,402 votes and the ruling party 333,268 votes.

In the ethnic Albanian bloc, the junior ruling Democratic Union for Albanians, DUI, has declared an absolute victory. Ethnic Albanians make one quarter of the country’s 2.2 million residents.

According to the Electoral Commission's preliminary results, the DUI has won 57,766 votes after half of the votes were counted. The opposition Democratic Party of Albanians are currently second in this bloc with 27,966.

It is customary that the winning Albanian party be asked to join the government formed by the largest Macedonian party.

The preliminary vote count shows that the right wing opposition United for Macedonia, and the VMRO People’s Party have failed to cripple the VMRO DPMNE. These parties were hoping to snatch the traditional right wing VMRO DPMNE voters. According to the initial data, after 63 per cent of ballots were counted, the two parties have around 10,000 votes each. This means that they can hope for one seat in parliament.

In the run up to the elections, observers predicted that the VMRO DPMNE and DUI would win fewer MP seats in the early elections compared to the previous polls in 2008, and that this might make it more difficult for them to form the new government.

If the ruling party manages to stay in power nevertheless, observers say the strengthened opposition will prove to be more influential than during the previous mandate.