Violence and charges of fraud mar crucial elections in FYROM

One person dead, nine wounded in gun battle; arrest has been made

Ethnic Albanian Demiri Sulejman displays bullets to the media after a shootout in his backyard in the village of Aracinovo near the capital, Skopje, yesterday.

By Kole Casule - Reuters

SKOPJE – Parliamentary elections in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) were marred by violence in ethnic Albanian areas and suspected fraud yesterday, with one person shot dead, nine wounded and voting halted in one town after a gun battle.

The violence among rival ethnic Albanian parties echoes incidents during the pre-election campaign and will hurt the country’s efforts to convince the European Union it is mature and democratic enough to progress toward membership.

The country’s electoral commission said there were instances of suspected fraud and irregularities, such as broken or missing ballot boxes and stolen voting materials.

Two of its local officials in the ethnic Albanian Tetovo area were briefly detained by an unknown armed group before being rescued unharmed by police, the A1 TV channel reported.

“I have to express my regret and worry that after the elections in 2006, which were overall evaluated as very good, this year we have bad elections, with a great number of incidents,” commission chief Jovan Josifovski told reporters.

Scuffles broke out in several ethnic Albanian areas and a small explosive device was thrown at an empty cafe. Near Skopje, voting was stopped in the town of Aracinovo after a gun battle.

Police said officers went to the town after local monitors reported the arrival of men with machine guns. They came under fire and retaliated, killing one gunman and injuring two others.

The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) said the incident was initiated by plainclothes police.

“They stopped our convoy and shot one round into the air; it was chaos; we got out of the cars and tried to flee,” DUI official Shefik Duraku told Reuters. Several police vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, were stationed just outside Aracinovo. The way into town was blocked by cars parked in the middle of the street.

In the nieighborhood of Cair in Skopje, another shooting took place outside a polling station. One DUI official was in critical condition and five other people were wounded, police said.

SKOPJE (AFP) – Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia President Branko

Crvenkovski yesterday condemned several violent incidents that marred a general election seen as a test of the Balkan state’s democratic credentials.

“Unfortunately, we have had information since this morning about a series of serious incidents involving weapons fire,” Crvenkovski said after he cast his ballot in Skopje. “I want to express my conviction that we will succeed in calming the atmosphere and that we will complete the day as a country with democratic potential,” he said.

Erwan Fouere, the European Union envoy in FYROM, said “violence and intimidation have no place” in a democratic society. “It is deeply disturbing what has happened and we have appealed to all concerned to ensure that the citizens who wish to are able to go and to vote freely.”

“For now the most immediate concern is to ensure that every effort has been made to stop the violence, stop the shooting,” said Fouere.

The French ambassador in Skopje, Bernard Valero, also appealed for calm. “This is not good because it’s a problem for the democratic process; that’s why I’m appealing for all the voters to go to vote and to participate,” said Valero.

The French ambassador also urged party activists to “abstain from any intimidation and use of violence. It’s very important to have normal electoral process.”

Meanwhile, a statement from the European Commission in Brussels released yesterday said that “the Commission is very concerned about the use of violence during the elections in the country.”