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Macedonia gears for polls in hope for EU future

02 June 2011, 12:43 CET
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(SKOPJE) - Macedonia stages a snap election Sunday to hand a new government the task of tackling a 30 percent unemployment rate and speed up its goal of European Union membership, stalled by a name row with Greece.

The main contenders on Sunday are two coalitions led by veteran political groupings: the ruling rightist 24-party coalition led by the VMRO-DPMNE and the leftist-led SDSM grouping.

The candidates will have a tough time to inspire the voters in this country of some two million. Dissatisfied with a slow pace of economic reforms and exasperated by years of political stalemate, a recent survey showed that 47.1 percent of voters were still undecided.

The same poll conducted by the Skopje-based Institute for Democracy thinktank showed 19.4 percent support for the ruling VMRO-DPMNE while 15.1 percent of those polled would back the SDSM.

The snap elections were called in April after an SDSM walk-out in parliament caused a political crisis.

The opposition staged a boycott of parliament after the authorities froze the bank accounts of pro-opposition A1 television station and three newspapers during a tax a probe of their owner.

The SDMS accused Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's government of policies worthy of a dictatorship, slamming its "strict control" of the media and blaming it for worsening the economic and social situation.

The crisis has further slowed the former Yugoslav republic's efforts to join the European Union and NATO, which remains blocked by Greece over the right to use the name Macedonia.

Macedonia has the status of member candidate since January 2005 but has not been allowed to join due to conflict with Athens which dates back to Macedonia's independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.

Greece, which has a northern province called Macedonia, says the use of the same name by its neighbour implies a claim on Greek territory.

So far UN-led negotiations to solve more than 19-year long name row were fruitless.

The electoral campaign has largely focused on the economic problems with both sides blaming each other.

Macedonia's economy is showing clear signs of recovery with gross domestic product (GDP) growing by 5.1 percent in the first quarter of the year and inflation is stable at around four percent.

However unemployment remains a major cause of social tensions with 31 percent of the potential workforce without a job.

The SDSM has already announced its candidate for the prime minister would be Radmila Secerinska. She has vowed that her grouping "will take responsibility for Macedonia as the state which will say Europe now, and not tomorrow or never".

While the opposition blames Gruevski for the lack of progress on the name issue it has not actually proposed any solution other than to promise, like the government has done, that any new name would be put to voters in a referendum.

Macedonia's ethnic Albanians -- who make up one quarter of the landlocked Balkan state's population -- are expected to impact the vote.

Many eyes are turned towards a new party led by Rufi Osmani, who returns to the political scene after 14 years, seven of which he has spent in prison for "anti-state" activities.

After he served his sentence, he was elected the mayor of southern town Gostivar and in March formed his party to run independently, promoting the partnership between Macedonians and Albanians as the "pillar of the country's prospects."

In 2001, a seven-month conflict opposed Macedonian security forces and ethnic Albanian rebel movement.

The conflict was brought to an end by an internationally brokered peace deal that included broader constitutional rights for the ethnic Albanian minority.

Some 1.8 million voters will elect deputies for 123-seat parliament and for the first time, some 7,000 Macedonians living abroad would have a chance to cast their ballot.

The polls would be monitored by some 3,500 local and 330 international observers.


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