Conflicts to raise if no early elections are called, says DPA leader

Early elections should be called in Macedonia after June, said leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) Menduh Thaci, Macedonian Vecer daily reports.
“There will be either conflict or early elections. DPA wants early elections, which to be called in a peaceful and democratic manner, but if this situation continues, there will be conflicts,” Thaci said. In his words, much is said about the disagreements between the Macedonians and Albanians, but in fact there are also disagreements among the Macedonians themselves.

“Closing the perspective for membership in the EU and NATO eliminated the chance for Macedonia’s existence. Early elections is the best decision at the moment,” Menduh Thaci remarked.

Deputy chairperson of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) Teuta Arifi, on the other hand, said that party’s leader, Ali Ahmeti, is the only person in Macedonia who knows how to start and end up a war.

Opposition parties in Macedonia join forces

Twelve political parties in Macedonia signed a co-operation agreement last week with the common aim of toppling Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the coalition making up his ruling VMRO-DPMNE government.

"Our utmost objective is to defeat the VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition," said coalition leader Branko Crvenkovski as the new bloc was announced in Skopje on February 1st. Crvenkovski, a former Macedonian president, said the wide range of parties have put their differences aside for the good of the nation at a critical time.

Symbolically called The Front, the multiparty union is led by Crvenkovski's Social Democratic Union for Macedonia (SDSM). The coalition is comprised of a wide range of current allies and former rivals -- from the left, the ultra-left and communists, to the dominant centre.

Their single aim is to topple the ruling centre-right coalition, which has been in power since the parliamentary elections of July 2006. Observers are generally sceptical that The Front will accomplish its goal anytime soon, pointing to polls that suggest the Gruevski government remains very popular with the public.

The Liberal Democrats -- vehemently criticising Gruevski while continuing their challenges to Crvenkovski -- did not join The Front. Also declining was the Democratic Party of Albanians, led by Menduh Thaci.

Ljube Boskovski, 49, is a former interior minister in Gruevski's ruling government. Acquitted of war crimes in connection with the 2001 torture and murder of ethnic Albanians in the village of Ljuboten, Boskovski is now a fierce critic of Gruevski.

New Alternative leader Gjorgi Orovcanec spoke to the crowd at the signing of the multiparty agreement, saying that the Gruevski government had not delivered on any of its promises.

"We do not have any investments, we do not have any money, we do not have any production, we do not have any friends."

Gruevski would not comment on the challenge now rallied against him, saying only that he has no fear of losing power.

Analysts have pointed out that only a small number of voters lean towards most of the parties who have signed on to The Front.

Professor Jove Kekenovski says the united opposition's impact is mostly psychological, while political expert Albert Musliu applauds a consolidated opposition as a corrective to the current government.

Who is the opponent of VMRO-DPMNE-left or right wing?

The coming parliamentary elections in Macedonia will be held under the sing of the fight in the left wing, Macedonian Utrinski vesnik writes. This is what former functionary of VMRO-DPMNE prognosticated. The party remained outside the coalitional front of the opposition, not joined by the VMRO-People’s Party as well. The two right parties have explained this with ideological differences and announced they will run independently at the coming elections, the edition reads further. It noted the non-entire unification of the opposition rises the issue who will be the main opponent of the VMRO-DPMNE at the coming general elections-Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) or one of the parties, which have derived from the VMRO-DPMNE.

Macedonian race for next president

A total of seven candidates, three of them ethnic Albanians, will run in the March 22 ballot, with the ruling VMRO-DPMNE represented by Djordje Ivanov.

The opposition candidate and, according to analysts , the election's front runner, is Ljubomir Frchkoski.

However, former Interior Minister Ljube Boshkoski is emerging as "the most interesting candidate", our reporter in Skopje says.

He spent four years detained at the Hague Tribunal, undergoing a trial there accused of 2001 murder of ethnic Albanians, but was acquitted of all charges last year.

Both Boshkoski and Frchkoski spoke for B92 on Saturday.

Boshkoski said he is not hiding his disappointment over the fact that VMRO-DPMNE, a party of which he is a member, did not choose him to run.

"I have four years of Hague solitude behind me. In a room sized 2.5 square meters I had time to think about Macedonia's future. Even during the first days after my departure I realized that the situation in Macedonia was alarming and that my country was extremely isolated. You know, although I returned from jail, I am in this way imprisoned again, and I cannot allow for that to happen."

"I disagree with some moves made by Premier [Nikola] Gruevski, but what worries me the most is his insistence on the Macedonians' ancient roots. This Aryan theory is something we don't need at all," Boshkovski said.

Frchkoski, on the other hand, sees it as his "personal challenge" to stand against "the authoritarian rule that has isolated Macedonia managing to push in into a Balkan corner".

"After twenty years of independence we are once again setting up the basic security issues, of whether or not Macedonia will face internal federalization and whether Albanians will separate in local municipalities."

"We cannot expect fair elections, the most we can expect is for them to be calm. Unfortunately these are the election criteria just like in Africa," said he.

Meanwhile, it is already clear that ethnic Albanian votes from the first round will go to the Macedonian bloc candidate that will be most accommodating to Albanian conditions and demands, our reporter says.

Ljube Boskovski’s nomination returned for correction

Macedonia’s State Electoral Commission has returned the nomination of the independent presidential candidate Ljube Boskovski for a correction, the Macedonian Nova Makedonija daily writes.
The mover of the nomination has to determine whose initials will be put down on the nomination – Boskovski’s or subscriber’s. The mistake has to be corrected immediately or within 48 hours after the nomination was submitted.

FIVE TV HOUSES CHARGED WITH MISDEMEANOR

A1, Kanal 5, Alsat, Sitel, and Tetovo TV house Art will be charged with misdemeanor for presenting presidential candidates before the start of the election campaign, Broadcasting Council Chairman Zoran Stefanovski informed on Sunday. These TV houses will be fined between 3,000 and 5,000 euros for breaching the Election Code and the Book of Regulations on media representation during election campaigns. The managers and the editors-in-chief of these TV houses do not agree with the new regulations on media representation, assessing them as a form of censorship.

“I hope that these offenses were not intentional and that they were the result of lack of information by the editors-in-chief,” Stefanovski stressed.

Macedonia gears up for presidential, local elections

With presidential and local elections set for March 22nd, all of Macedonia's major parties have announced their nominees. The two largest parties both nominated political science professors, one of whom served in the governments of the 1990s.

George Ivanov, a professor at the University of Skopje, secured the nomination of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE by a landslide margin at the party convention. He defeated rival Todor Petrov 1,016 to 91. "VMRO-DPMNE ... under the leadership of [Prime Minister] Nikola Gruevski has ... created an atmosphere that unites Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Roma, etc.," Ivanov said.

Before the two VMRO-DPMNE candidates addressed the party convention, Gruevski denounced outgoing President Branko Crvenkovski for allegedly stealing the last presidential election and not seeking re-election.

"He is afraid to face the citizens and ask for a second term, which is the practise of every president finishing a first term," Gruevski scoffed.

The main opposition party, SDSM, chose Ljubomir Frckovski, who also enjoys support from the smaller New Social Democrats. Frckovski, now a political scientist, served as interior and foreign minister in the 1990s.

"Gruevski chose a candidate he can easily control and opted for political confrontation. We are focused on defeating this harmful and isolationist policy," said SDSM party head Zoran Zaev after the selection of Frckovski.

Other parties advanced their own candidates. The ruling ethnic-Albanian party, DUI, nominated Agron Budjaku, a former transport and communications minister. The opposition Albanian party, the DPA, nominated Mirushe Hodza, a professor. She and independent Slagjana Taseva are the two female presidential candidates this year. A third Albanian party, PDP, nominated Nevzat Halili, its former head.

New Democracy, meanwhile, nominated its own leader, Imer Selmani. He served as a minister of health in the VMRO-DPMNE-DPA coalition government of 2006 to 2008.

The Liberal Democrats nominated Nano Ruzin, a former ambassador to NATO. Ruzin agreed to run after Srdjan Kerim, a highly regarded former foreign minister and president of the UN General Assembly, declined to run as the SDSM candidate.

The most notorious candidate is former Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski, who spent more than three years in The Hague's custody for alleged war crimes before being acquitted. Boskovski is running as an independent.

Ljube Boskovski collects necessary number of signatures for his presidential nomination

The former defense minister Ljube Boskovski has collected 17,000 signatures supporting his presidential nomination, Focus News Agency’s correspondent in Skopje reported.
The law states that a candidate shall collect 10,000 signatures or secure the support of 30 MPs.
“During the first two days we collected 10,000 signatures. The rest of the people put down their signatures in the next two-three days. Residents of Lipkovo and Tetovo, who were affected by the 2001 conflict, put down their signatures as well,” Boskovski said at a press conference on Thursday.
He says he meets all requirements for a presidential candidate – he has turned 48, has been living permanently in Macedonia for 10 years and has a Macedonian citizenship.
In my election campaign I will call for an internal unification of all people in Macedonia, he said.

Macedonia’s candidate for president George Ivanov got 18 000 signatures for 3 hours

Macedonia’s candidate for president George Ivanov managed to collects the needed 18,000 signatures for 3 hours, Macedonian Vreme newspaper informs.
VMRO-DPNE press office said this fact definitely proves citizens see Ivanov's capacities. The party decided to confirm his nomination this way, despite it could do it in the parliament with the support of 30 MPs.

Strasburg to watch closely elections in Macedonia

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe / PACE/ announced it will send it mission to watch closely the next elections in Macedonia. Monitoring committee will watch closely the situation before, during and after the elections, Macedonian Utrinski Vesnik informs.
Chairman of PACE Luis Maria de Putch expressed his hope the conclusions of the mission will be different from those for the former elections, especially those in June 2008. it is necessary politics, political parties an authorities to be responsible for the implementation of the elections; to make them “clean” and the lection campaign to be “real celabration”, chairman proposed.

March elections key for Macedonia

When temperatures begin to rise this spring, political battles in Macedonia will also be heating up. The country will go to the polls on March 22nd to elect a new president, as well as mayors and municipal councils. The government announced the local and presidential election date on Saturday (January 10th).

"These elections are very crucial for us citizens," Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanovski said after the announcement. "According to the highest European standards, fair and democratic elections are of the highest importance for our further inclusion in the EU."

This round of voting will see a significant change in turnout requirements. In the past, at least 50% of the electorate had to turn up at the polls in order for the results to be valid. That figure has fallen to 40%.

Parliament agreed to the change on Friday. It also approved a requirement for candidates to submit a notarised statement to the Lustration Commission swearing that he or she never collaborated with the secret police of the former communist regime.

Political parties are, for the time being, keeping their candidate lists under wraps. Both the ruling VMRO-DPMNE and the main opposition SDSM have disclosed their mayoral candidates only in areas where they are confident of victory.

The VMRO-DPMNE says that in Bitola and Prilep, its mayoral candidates will be incumbents Marjan Risteski and Vladimir Talevski. The SDSM announced that its incumbent mayors in Strumica, Ohrid and Kumanovo -- Zoran Zaev, Aleksandar Petrevski and Zoran Damjanovski, respectively -- will be running again.

As for the presidential race, former Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski was the first to throw his hat into the ring. Boskovski spent more than three years in custody at The Hague in connection with a 2001 police raid on an ethnic Albanian village that left seven people dead. Prosecutors are appealing his acquittal by the UN court.

Topping the polls, however, is former Foreign Minister Srdjan Kerim. On Tuesday, the SDSM presented Kerim as a candidate who could command the support of both parties.

"We put forward a proposal to VMRO-DPMNE and the party's president, Nikola Gruevski, for the two largest parties in the country to stand behind a single nonpartisan candidate for the next head of state," SDSM leader Zoran Zaev said. We consider ... Kerim to be the most fitting person for such a post."

The election is crucial to Macedonia's chances of joining the EU. Brussels has made it clear that it wants to see honest and democratic elections, as opposed to last June's parliamentary vote, marred by violence and voter fraud. According to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, the government has adopted a plan for the March elections to prevent any possible incidents.

DUI nominates Agron Buxhaku for presidential elections

The ruling DUI will nominate Agron Buxhaku as the party's sole candidate at the elections for the next President of Macedonia.

DUI's leadership adopted this decision at the meeting Tuesday evening in the party's seat in Mala Recica.

The opposition DPA is also due to decide on whether to nominate its own candidate in the presidential elections slated for 22 March.

EU in new election warning to Macedonia

Macedonia’s EU integration process could be postponed if the next elections do not meet international standards, European Union officials have warned.

Presidential and local elections will be held on March 22 in Macedonia.

“If these elections do not completely fulfill international standards, I am afraid that it will be a great failure for the country and will postpone its EU integration,” the EU’s envoy to Macedonia Irvan Fuer said.

Macedonia applied for EU membership in 2004, but has not fulfilled all the necessary criteria for starting talks on EU association.

Fuer said that an unsuccessful election process would postpone the EU integration process until the next elections, which are due in 2012.

There was violence during last year’s parliamentary elections between rival Albanian parties. One person died and nine were injured in the clashes.

Fuer said that if the March elections went off without a hitch and if Skopje implemented all the necessary reforms, then the “European Commission will have enough of an argument to recommend (the opening of association talks).”

The EU will offer training for Macedonian police before the elections, and called on Macedonian leaders to maintain security and a positive atmosphere for voting.

Fuer said that the dispute between Skopje and Athens regarding Macedonia’s name “is a separate issue not related to reforms, and the Commission will be basing its report on reforms.”

He added that EU officials had told Skopje that the dispute with Greece must be resolved before EU association could continue.

Greece has threatened to block Macedonia’s integration process if no compromise is reached, while the EU has called for both sides to continue the UN-brokered negotiations.

Pyrrhic victory in Macedonia

The snap parliamentary elections held in Macedonia on June 1 were meant to open the way to calm the continued unrest that had been troubling the small Balkan republic over the past months.

The elections were called after, on April 12, parliament in Skopje voted to dissolve itself. This followed an enduring crisis that had faced conservative prime minister Nikola Gruevski’s government, rooted in events from calls by the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) for more rights for ethnic Albanians, to a row over Macedonian slowness over whether to recognise Kosovo, and the Nato summit in Bucharest which saw Skopje failing to secure an invitation to join the alliance.

Announcing that the snap elections were to be held, Gruevski said that he hoped to win a healthier majority, to facilitate the implementation of intended reforms.

The outcome after June 1 appeared to be a fulfillment of Gruevski’s hopes. According to preliminary results, the VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition won 64 seats in the 120-MP Macedonian parliament, while the rival Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM)-led bloc did not manage to get even half of these and conceded defeat with 28 mandates.

Gruevski’s landslide victory secured him every politician’s dream – a majority in parliament so overwhelming as to ensure that all legislation and any action proposed by the government will be approved. However, as Radmila Sekerinska, the Social Democrat leader who resigned following her rout, put it, the cost Macedonia paid in these elections could prove too high. The unprecedented violence during the election campaign, followed by the turbulence on election day that led to at least one death and several injuries, could delay its entry into the European Union. In addition, Gruevski’s hard-line stand on the name dispute with neighbouring Greece could result in continued failure to bring Macedonia anywhere near Nato.

Election day violence led to voting being halted at a number of voting stations at the ethnic Albanian village of Aracinovo, north of the Macedonian capital city of Skopje, international news agencies reported. Twenty people were reported arrested after the Aracinovo shootings. Reuters said that Macedonian state news agency MIA had reported scuffles in several ethnic Albanian areas and that a small explosive device had been thrown at an empty cafe. A police source said officers had chased an unknown armed group until they came under fire in Aracinovo. Police retaliated and injured one of the gunmen.

These clashes, having taken place in the Albanian-inhabited regions of Macedonia, came as little surprise since the run-up to the elections was marred by violent incidents between supporters of the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) party and its rival DPA. The shooting incident allegedly involved DUI members, and a DUI official rejected the police version, saying that interception of the group by plain-clothed police who had fired a shot into the air had led to chaos and further shooting.

Bulgaria’s Focus news agency reported that four people were wounded in a shooting at the Dame Gruev school, in Chair, an ethnic Albanian-populated area near Skopje.

There was also alleged election fraud, with claims of ballot boxes having been tampered with reportedly contributing to the outbreak of violent incidents. Allegedly, armed people had been threatening voters, the State Electoral Commission was quoted by Focus news agency as having told a news conference.

All this violence seriously undermined Macedonia’s position in the eyes of the international community.

“I deeply regret the violence which marred the elections. A day which should have been a peaceful demonstration of democratic values resulted instead in the loss of a life as well as injury to several people [...] Organised violence, intimidation and ballot stuffing in many places prevented citizens from exercising their democratic rights,” European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitored the elections, concluded that “key international standards were not met [...], as organised attempts to violently disrupt the electoral process in parts of the ethnic Albanian areas made it impossible for voters in many places to freely express their will”.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry also declared its stance. The atmosphere in which snap parliamentary elections were held in Macedonia required all political parties in the country to assume their share of the “responsibility”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dimitar Tsanchev said in a statement.

In an attempt to mollify the severe criticism, Gruevski promised to hold a re-run of elections in areas where violence had prevented them being conducted peacefully. Scheduled for June 15, the re-run is bound to determine the West’s attitude to Macedonia, as it is a chance to either improve its current image and raise hopes for co-operation, or to permanently brand it a state that is shaky, turbulent and torn by ethnic rivalries.

“It is imperative that these re-runs are held in line with international standards [...] I underline that holding free and fair elections is an essential part of the political criteria of the EU accession process,” Rehn said.

In the meantime, Gruevski will spend some time deciding (or pretending he is deciding) which of the two rival Albanian parties to take on board in the next cabinet. Technically he needs none, but this way he can integrate the Albanians in the government of Macedonia, show ethnic tolerance and strengthen his majority. Although the DUI managed to collect a few more votes than the DPA, the two parties each won an equal number of seats in parliament – 13.

Gruevski’s obvious choice might be his current coalition partner, the DPA, but he clearly did not want to make hurried commitments. However, he said that, first, he will not hold any coalition talks before the re-runs and, second, he will ally with the Albanian party that has won the most votes, website Balkan Insight reported, quoting Gruevski as telling local A1 TV that “VMRO-DPMNE will enter a coalition with the one Albanian party that wins [the polls] among Albanians in a fair and democratic way”.

Recent elections were the worst in Macedonia’s history: deputy minister of SDSM

Recent early parliamentary elections were the worst in Macedonia’s history. Nikola Gruevsaki got Pyrrhic victory, deputy chairperson of Social Democratic Union of Macedonia /SDSM/, present mayor of Strumica and leader of SDSM ticket in the forth-electoral constituency, Zoran Zaev said forFOCUS News Agency. Zaev is the only leader of the ticket who got MPs’ majority in the parliament at the early parliamentary elections on June 1st.
“ For the first time policemen cried before me because of the pressure and the threats that the Ministry of Interior exerted over them. The Election Day and the 20th days campaign will never be forgotten. Because of these elections I feel ashamed that I was a candidate at the elections and that I am engaged in politics.

OSCE, ODIHR say elections in Macedonia were substandard

Macedonia's elections Sunday (June 1st) failed to meet "key international standards", according to an OSCE/ODIHR observation mission. It cited attempts to disrupt the election in areas dominated by ethnic Albanians.

"Violence and attempts to manipulate the campaign sadly cast a shadow over otherwise well-implemented elections," OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vice President Pia Christmas-Moller said. "Violence ... in ethnic Albanian areas is an unacceptable breach of peace and people's democratic rights."

Although Macedonian officials administered the elections well, they enforced laws "selectively" and "failed to prevent violence", the mission said in its report.

"The OSCE will monitor whether the authorities seriously address the violations and take remedial steps," Ambassador Robert Barry, the head of the OSCE/ODIHR mission, said. "We will also observe polling stations where voting is conducted again and will make a final decision depending on how much the authorities completely investigate and eliminate incidents."

According to Barry, a widespread failure to take preventive measures permitted incidents to flare on Election Day.

EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn also issued a grim statement Monday. "I deeply regret the violence that marked the elections. The European Union is strongly committed to [Macedonia's] European prospects. I emphasise that carrying out free and fair elections is the essential criterion for the process of EU integration."

Javier Solana, EU security chief, expressed disappointment as well. Spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said he had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. "He is expecting a revote at the [worst-affected] polling stations in order to improve the image of the elections," she said.

On Monday, US Ambassador to Macedonia Gillian Milovanovic and EU Special Representative Erwan Fouere met with Gruevski to discuss the election violence.

All efforts should be made not only to pursue the perpetrators but to prosecute them. Macedonia failed this exam on democracy, but international institutions are giving it a new chance [with the planned revote], Fouere said after the meeting.

"These elections were not as good as in 2006," Milovanovic said. "Sadly, people were prevented from voting; however, the prime minister's pledge to eliminate these problems is encouraging and we are expecting better results in two weeks. I am surprised that people reacted indifferently to the incidents as if they were happening to somebody else, not to them."

Poll violence could harm Macedonia’s EU bid

Nikola Gruevski, the Macedonian Prime Minister, had an overwhelming election victory on Sunday but the violence that marred it may perpetuate divisions and delay the country’s progress towards EU membership.

Mr Gruevski’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE party will have the healthiest majority in parliament for more than a decade, riding on a wave of nationalist anger over Greece blocking Macedonia’s Nato membership invitation in April.

The victory vindicated Mr Gruevski’s controversial decision to call a snap election but, with one man dead and nine wounded, some observers blamed him for ignoring the risk of violence among the 25 per cent Albanian minority, divided between two hostile parties, both with links to armed groups.

The violence could perpetuate an impression in the West that seven years after the country was pulled back from the brink of ethnic war, the Kalashnikov remains a part of Macedonia’s political process.

“We can expect a very bad report card,” said Dane Taleski, an analyst. “We won’t be getting a date for [EU] accession talks this year.”

Apart from the gunfire, which halted voting in one town, ballot boxes went missing and two election officials were held briefly by gunmen before police rescued them.

Macedonian elections spell start of new crisis, former prime minister says

The snap parliamentary elections in Macedonia were not necessary at all, even a luxury of sorts, former Macedonian prime minister Ljubcho Georgievski told private Bulgarian broadcaster Nova TV's Koritarov Live morning talk show, as quoted by Focus news agency.

Georgievski said that Macedonia had wasted precious time before Nato's summit in Bucharest at the beginning of April 2008 and then until July to finalise talks with Greece on the name dispute between the two, which would allow Skopje to secure a belated invitation to the alliance. According to Georgievski, these elections delayed the date of Macedonia's accession to Nato and the date for starting negotiations with the European Union.

VMRO-DPMNE's convincing victory would not bring anything new to Macedonia since the federative principle of cabinet formation has long existed in the country, Georgievski said. He also forecast that choosing one of the Albanian parties as a coalition partner would lead to “radicalising the other Albanian party”.

Georgievski said that Macedonia was yet to overcome the political crisis of 2001, which erupted when he was VMRO-DPMNE leader and prime minister, as the two basic issues - the dispute with Greece over the name of the country and the requests of the Albanians in Macedonia - were still unsolved. He added that the elections gave reason for a new list of requests by the ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia, which could lead “even to the gradual break-up of the Macedonian statehood”.

“We could say these elections are the beginning of a new state crisis for the Republic of Macedonia,” Georgievski said.

NATO urges Macedonia to address electoral shortfalls

NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer is deeply concerned by the OSCE Observer Mission's preliminary conclusions that the 1 June elections in Macedonia did not meet key international standards.

The Mission assessed that, despite many positive elements, election day was marred by violent incidents, intimidation and ballot stuffing in predominantly ethnic areas.

"Countries working towards NATO membership must make every effort to meet the democratic standards of the Alliance. Active steps should be taken to address the security and electoral shortfalls, in particular in the context of the repeat of voting to take place in districts where the electoral process had to be halted," Secretary General said in a statement.

NATO will carefully assess the OSCE Observer Mission's final conclusions, once the process is complete.

Int'l monitors report serious violations in violence-marred Macedonian election

International monitors said Monday that serious violations marred the election in Macedonia that gave the center-right government a landslide victory but was tarnished by gunbattles and fraud allegations.

The monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe said Sunday's vote failed to meet international standards and was marked by violence, intimidation and ballot box stuffing in predominantly ethnic Albanian areas.

"Organized efforts to violently disrupt the process early on Election Day made it impossible for voters in many places to freely express their will," it said.

Nikola Gruevski's center-right conservatives won 48.3 percent of the vote, far ahead of the Social Democrats' 23.4 and enough to give him a majority in the 120-seat parliament.

But one person was killed and eight wounded in gunbattles in ethnic Albanian areas. Along with allegations of fraud, the violence highlighted dangerous divisions within Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority and threatened to undermine the Balkan nation's aspirations to join the European Union and NATO.

"What we witnessed here is damaging to this country's declared course to European and trans-Atlantic integration," said Mevlut Cavusoglu, head of a delegation from the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly. "To be frank, I am very upset with what I witnessed in this country at these elections."

Voting was suspended at 22 polling stations — 1 percent of the country's total — in ethnic Albanian areas because of intimidation, violence or reports of fraud. Reruns will be held in those areas in two weeks.

"It is clear that the commitments to the Council of Europe standards and the OSCE standards in this particular election were not met," said Robert Barry, head of the observer mission.

Voting violations were registered in 30 polling stations, and 28 people were arrested, police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.

Gruevski pledged to ensure a fair rerun, and vowed to prosecute those responsible, according to the MIA news agency.

"I will not form the new government as long as I am not certain that fair and democratic elections have been conducted in those 1 or 2 percent of the polling stations," he was quoted as saying.

"In a state that functions under the rule of law there is no room for violence. All those who intend to provoke such acts will be sanctioned, regardless of their political, ethnic and religious affiliation."

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. expects Macedonia to prosecute those involved.

"It's the responsibility (of) a government to provide an atmosphere where people are able to freely express themselves via the ballot box and feel assured that they wouldn't be subject to threat or intimidation," he said.

Germany called for the reruns to be trouble-free. Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke said the election problems "undermine the trust of the people in the democratic processes."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also condemned the violence and said that "key European commitments were not met."

He said the EU's overall assessment "will depend on the further handling and investigation of the violations identified."

Macedonia could face long-term consequences from Sunday's vote, said Biljana Vankovska, a political analyst and professor at Skopje university's Institute for Defense and Peace Studies.

"The international standing of the country has been undermined seriously," she said. "Yesterday was probably for many of us the worst possible outcome."

Ethnic Albanians make up about a quarter of Macedonia's 2.1 million people, and ethnic Albanian rebels fought a six-month insurgency in 2001. But divisions have grown between the minority's two main parties: the Democratic Union for Integration led by former rebel leader Ali Ahmeti and Menduh Thaci's Democratic Party of Albanians.

Tension escalated after the 2006 election, when Gruevski picked the DPA as a governing coalition partner even though it won fewer votes than Ahmeti's DUI.

"Time is long overdue for an intra-Albanian dialogue that could pave the way to reconciliation and enhance stability and democracy," Cavusoglu said.

The DUI won 11.1 percent of the vote Sunday, slightly ahead of the DPA's 10.2.

DUI called Monday for an investigation into DPA and Thaci for the shootings and other violations. Thaci also called for "people who fired bullets on civilians and policemen to be put behind bars."