Conservatives win FYROM vote

European Union rues violence and urges Skopje to address various election concerns

FYROM Prime Minister and leader of the ruling VMRO DPMNE Nikola Gruevski greets his supporters in Skopje yesterday. Monitors have criticized violence that marred the poll and could put the country’s EU ambitions on hold.

By Ellie Tzortzi - Reuters

SKOPJE – The ruling conservatives of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) have won an overwhelming election victory but monitors yesterday criticized violence during voting that could delay the country’s progress toward European Union membership.

The VMRO-DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski will have the healthiest majority in parliament in more than a decade, riding a wave of nationalist anger over Greece blocking FYROM’s NATO membership invitation in April.

The victory vindicated Gruevski’s controversial decision to call a snap election, gambling that the snub would strengthen his hand and pay off with a stronger four-year mandate.

But election monitors criticized a failure to prevent violence in ethnic Albanian areas that killed one man and wounded nine others.

They also noted instances of intimidation and ballot-box stuffing. The EU said it deeply regretted the violence.

“Expectations of progress were not realized because of a failure to prevent violent acts in ethnic Albanian areas, and the limited and selective enforcement of laws,” the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said in a report.

The mission said it would watch closely a rerun of voting in several areas, and said an overall assessment would depend on the investigation and punishment of election violations.

The government had offered “very little in the way of response or preventive action,” mission head Ambassador Robert Barry of the United States told a news conference. He warned of an “atmosphere of impunity.”

Though confined to Albanian areas, the violence could perpetuate a Western impression that, seven years after FYROM was pulled back from the brink of all-out ethnic war, the Kalashnikov is still a part of the political process.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the EU remained “firmly committed” to FYROM’s EU perspective, but added, “I underline that holding free and fair elections is an essential part of the political criteria of the EU accession process.”

Gruevski has promised a rerun of the vote in troubled areas, after which he will choose one of the rival ethnic Albanian parties, the DPA and DUI, as a coalition partner to bolster his majority in the 120-seat assembly.

He has said he favors allying again with the DPA, his partner in the outgoing coalition. Such a move is likely to further alienate the many Albanians who voted for the DUI, which accused its rival of colluding with the police in “provocations, violence and psychological terror.”

“Despite the violence and ballot stuffing, we still have more deputies than the DPA,” said senior DUI official Xhevat Ademi.

“It won’t be the first time they convert defeat into victory.”