George
Ivanov from the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party maintains a lead according
to early results from (FYRO) Macedonia’s (later Macedonia) Presidential
election although he is likely to face a run-off vote in two weeks time;then his challenger will be Ljubomir Frckoski from the Social Democrats.Macedonia
could have a “Snow White Election”, the EU ambassador to the country,
Erwan Fouere said optimistically during his monitoring to the ballot
posts.Besides fair play in elections the statement can
also describe the fact that the snow prevented some 12,000 people in
certain mountainous villages to vote as the balloting did not start in
103 out of the nearly 3000 ballot stations. (Source BalkanInsight)
Background 2008
The
election was being closely monitored in the West which has previously
warned the country that it could face years of delay in its bid to join
the European Union if there is a repeat of last year’s election-related
violence.
Last year’s general elections were marred with violence and fraud in the ethnic Albanian populated areas of the country.Violence erupted between rival ethnic Albanian parties during the vote leaving one person dead and several wounded.This sparked negative reports from election monitors and criticism from the west, including the EU.
Campaign 2009
For
their part, the seven presidential candidates have focused their
campaigns on the country’s strategic goals, EU and NATO membership, and
on the need to solve the burning so-called name row with Greece that
jeopardizes these goals. The economy and ethnic relations between the
Macedonian majority and the Albanian minority were also high on the
agenda.
Macedonia’s Helsinki Committee had earlier skeptical view about this year elections.The
Committee cites the latest OSCE report on the election campaign that
notes that pressure put on administration workers to vote for the
ruling VMRO DPMNE party, badly organised local election bodies, and
unbalanced media coverage do not bode well for a good assessment of the
elections.(Source BalkanInsight)
Results
After several weeks of campaigning during which the main candidates have largely failed to inspire voters.A bit over 50 % of eligible voters bothered to go vote.
Out of 98 percent of the counted votes, the results are following:George Ivanov (Conservative VMRO DPMNE) is the frontrunner with about 340,000 votes or 35 percent,
Ljubomir Frckoski from the main opposition the Social Democrats has won 198,000 votes or just over 20 percent,
The
independent candidate Ljube Boskoski, acquitted at The Hague tribunal
of war crimes during the 2001 Macedonia conflict last year and Imer
Selmani from the New Democracy party both tallied around 145,000 votes
or about 15 percent each,
Agron Buxhaku from the ruling Democratic Union for Integration, DUI got 73,000 votes or just under 7.5 percent,
Nano Ruzin from the Liberal Democrats won around 39,000 votes or about 4 percent, and
Mirushe Hoxha from the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA got about 30,000 votes or around 3 percent.Earlier
the State Election Commission announced Sunday’s presidential and
mayoral elections went without major incident and met democratic norms.
(Source BalkanInsight)
Wishful thinking
Before
elections there was an assumption that if the country pulls off a
smooth election it can hope for a swift removal of EU visas put up
against travelling Macedonian citizens and a date for the start of its
EU accession talks this autumn.
Macedonia
has been a EU candidate state since 2005 and last year the EC said
Skopje is still not ready for the start of accession talks largely
because the violence and fraud allegations that marred the 2008 general
election.
So when elections now went quite well is Macedonia closer EU? Unfortunately not – not because of country itself but due the stagnation of EU for the sake of Lisbon Treaty.Before Irish yes the Treaty is not coming to force and EU can not “de facto” absorb new members.
When
situation is frozen Croatia and Macedonia must wait, Turkey probably
has already realized that it will not in near future come an EU member,
Montenegro’s candidate application is put in archives and others are
calculating their options.From the other hand this kind
of time-out can be seen also positive since it gives time to think
possible new cooperation methods as alternative for full membership. More my articles about Balkans one may find from my BalkanBlog.balkanari rusilaBalkanBlog
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