Ivanov Takes Lead in Macedonia President Elections

This time Macedonia's elections were disturbed by the weather not violence. Photo by washingtontimes.com

The candidate for Macedonia's ruling conservative party, Gjorgje Ivanov, has taken the lead in the race to become the country's president.

Partial results however, showed Ivanov, of the governing VMRO-DPMNE party, had not won enough votes to avoid a 5 April run-off.

The presidential and local polls were seen as crucial to Macedonia's hopes for joining the EU and Nato, the BBC reported.

There was tight security, with thousands of extra police deployed. The electoral commission said voting went well during the day.

There were no reports of the kind of violence between rival ethnic Albanian parties that marred the June 2008 parliamentary elections although heavy snowfall prevented 134 of almost 3 000 polling stations from opening.

Partial results showed Ivanov, the candidate of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party, to be ahead with more than 35% of the vote.

The race for second place was between Ljubomir Frckoski, who is backed by the Social Democratic SDSM, and former Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski, who was acquitted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague last year.

Final results are expected late Monday.

 

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