Skopje PM Hails Landslide Poll Win

[Prokomenos]

01 June 2008 Skopje _ Premier and ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski, praised his party’s victory in Sunday’s election while the opposition conceded defeat.


Gruevski claimed his party will win more than 60 seats in the 120 parliament. That was the main goal of the ruling coalition which clamed this would enable them to pass laws quicker.

“Tonight we will celebrate. Starting from tomorrow, there is work ahead of us, we have to deliver results and fulfill what we promised in our election agenda,” Gruevski said.

The latest estimates from VMRO DPMNE’s own count show that out of 80 percent of all ballots the party won 440,000 votes. The opposition Social Democrats won just 215,000 votes according to the ruling party’s tally.

The preliminary results by the State Election Commission from 82 percent of counted votes show that the ruling alliance “For a Better Macedonia” led by VMRO DPMNE won around 376,000 votes, while the Social Democrat-led bloc won 178,000 votes.

Social Democrat leader Radmila Sekerinska conceded defeat and congratulated her rivals on their win.

However she claimed the elections, “with one dead in shootings, the price was extremely high” adding that predictions this would be the worst election proved right.

The polls have been seen as a test of the country’s democratic record but were marred by a series of violent incidents in the mainly ethnic Albanian populated areas of the country. The violence claimed one life and left several injured.

The European Union has said the polls must be free and fair if the country hopes to get a firm date for the start of EU accession talks this autumn.

"We are here, we will help Skopje, we will show that nobody will allow the Skopje sun to set," Sekerinska vowed.

“Our election result is better than in 2006 but nonetheless it shows we did not manage to persuade the voters to support us,” she conceded.

Addressing party supporters, Sekerinska said the bloc’s failure to secure a majority in parliament was her responsibility while she thanked her supporters for backing the party at the poll.

Among the ethnic Albanian parties, the current government member DPA has already been celebrating their election victory over the DUI.

The State Election Commission’s results show the race between them is tight with the DUI winning 90,000 votes and the DPA 81,000.

About one quarter of the country’s population is ethnic Albanian.

Political analysts say it was clear that Gruevski will form the new government as various opinion polls showed his party with a convincing lead throughout the election campaign but now the main question is which ethnic Albanian party he will include in it.

They point out that the new government will have to immediately face Greek pressure on the country to change its constitutional name “Republic of Macedonia” if it wishes to enter NATO and the European Union.

In April, Athens vetoed Skopje’s invitation to join NATO arguing the name Macedonia could lead Skopje to make territorial claims over Greece’s own northern province of the same name.

Finding a solution to this sensitive row will demand strong consensus within Skopje and much will depend on the ethnic Albanian coalition partner Gruevski’s party chooses.

After the 2006 general elections, Gruevski included the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, in his government even though the rival ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI won the most seats. This led the DUI to protest and boycott the work of the parliament in 2007.


More comprehensive results are expected on Monday as well as an assessment by election monitors on the conduct of the poll.


To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

[AlmightyGreek]

VMRO DPMNE would be nothing but a pain in the behind for Greece. Its funny because VMRO are originally Bulgarians.