Macedonia plans snap polls in June: prime minister

(SKOPJE) - Macedonia's Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said on Wednesday he will propose early elections in the former Yugoslav republic to be held on June 5 in a bid to end the current political stalemate.

Gruevski told reporters that his ruling centre-right VMRO-DPMNE party would "propose to the parliament to call the elections to take place on June 5."

"The elections will be free, fair and democratic and everyone who tries to damage that process will be severely punished," Gruevski said.

His proposal came just after the main opposition Social Democrat leader Branko Crvenkovski had said his party would take part in the elections, after earlier threats of a boycott.

According to the constitution, the parliament speaker must call new elections after the assembly is dissolved. Gruevski did not say when this might happen.

The Macedonian opposition has been boycotting the parliament since late January, calling for early elections. Polls would normally be due next year.

For weeks, both sides have been at odds over the conditions for the vote to be held, with the opposition fears that the ruling party will try to steal the elections due to outdated electoral lists.

The parties are also in dispute over a solution for the A1 pro-opposition television stations and three newspapers which had their bank accounts frozen because their media tycoon owner Velija Ramkovski is under investigation for tax evasion.

The opposition walk-out from parliament has slowed Skopje's efforts to join the European Union, already blocked by Greece over the right to use the name Macedonia.

So far UN-led negotiations to solve the row have been fruitless.