Macedonia elections: preliminary results

by yuls.source | April 5, 2009 at 03:56 pm

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Over half of all votes have already been counted in the presidential election in the former Yugoslavian state of Macedonia, and the preliminary counts show that conservative leader Gjorge Ivanov has a strong lead over his closest rival Social Democrat Ljubomir Frckoski, BBC.com reports. The official results have yet to be announced.

With over 55% of ballots counted, he had almost double the votes of Social Democrat rival Ljubomir Frckoski.

President Branko Crvenkovski is not seeking a second term. Some 1.8m people were eligible to vote in the election.

The vote is considered to be important in helping to move the country towards European Union and Nato membership.

Both organisations have said progress towards membership will depend on Sunday's election meeting international standards.

A parliamentary vote last year was marred by violence, with one person being shot dead and several others wounded in an ethnic Albanian area.

It is hoped the new president will help Macedonia resolve a long-running dispute with Greece over the country's name which has blocked its entry to Nato, correspondents say.

Last year, Greece said it would block Macedonia from joining Nato and the EU unless it compromised over its official name. Macedonia is also the name of a northern region of Greece.

In December 2008, Macedonia decided to take the issue of its name to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.