Macedonia's parliamentary vote too close to call

By Kayhan Gul, Dzihat Aliju

SKOPJE

Initial results of parliamentary elections Sunday had two parties celebrating victories in a race that has not yet been officially called.

The State Electoral Commission said the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization -- Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) party led by former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski had a narrow lead with 38.36 percent of the vote against the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) led by Zoran Zaev that has garnered 36.33 percent.

Nearly 1.8 million registered voters went to the polls Sunday in the country's fourth snap elections since 2008.

The electoral commission said 1,092 candidates are vying for 123 seats in parliament and that 90 percent of the votes had been counted from 3,480 polling stations and 46 abroad.

The elections are being held two years ahead of schedule in accordance with an agreement to end a crisis that has marred the political scene in recent months after the resignation of nationalist leader Gruevski following a wiretapping scandal.

Zaev, who leads the opposition, has released scores of recordings since February 2015 that purports to demonstrate that then embattled Prime Minister Gruevski, and his intelligence chief, Saso Mijalkov, ordered the illegal surveillance of as many as to 20,000 individuals, including government ministers and journalists.

An ensuing political crisis was thought to have ended in July 2015 when an EU-mediated agreement was reached between the leaders of the four parliamentary political parties.

Gruevski was to resign at the end of 2015 and early parliamentary elections were to be held in April. Gruevski resigned Jan. 14.

The elections were rescheduled for early June as certain criteria were not met, but Macedonian MPs voted in May by a large majority to again delay the polls.

Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and since 2005 has been an EU candidate country.