Early Elections to Affirm Gruevski's Grip on Power in Macedonia - Poll

VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski is expected to retain his Prime Minister seat after the June 5 snap polls in Macedonia. Photo by BGNES

Macedonia's ruling party VMRO-DPNME and its leader Nikola Gruevksi still enjoy the greatest public support in country even after they agreed to dissolve the Parliament and to hold early elections.

If the elections scheduled for June 5, 2011, were to be held today, VMRO-DPMNE would get 55 MPs in the 120-seat Parliament, according to the latest public opinion poll of the Skopje-based Pavel Shatev Institute, as cited by BGNES.

VMRO-DPMNE had 63 MPs in the Parliament elected in 2008, and dissolved last week over vigorous protests by the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDUM) led by ex PM and ex President Branko Crvenkovski.

SDUM can hope to get 31 MPs in the new Parliament, according to cited poll, up from 27 MPs in the outgoing assembly.

The two parties of the ethnic Albanians are predicted to have fewer MPs than that did in the current Parliament. The Democratic Union for Integration of Ali Ahmeti, which is VMRO-DPNME's governing coalition partner, is projected to win 15 MPs seats, down from 18. The Democratic Party of Albanians led by Menduh Thaci will win 7 seats, down from 11 at present.

A couple of smaller parties are also projected to enter in the Macedonian Parliament this time. New Democracy is expected to win 4 seats, the Liberal Party – 2. The VMRO-People's Party led by former Macedonian PM Ljupco Georgievski can hope to win one seat.

According to the poll, VMRO-DPMNE and the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration will have a majority of about 70 MPs in the future parliament even though they might each lose a few seats.

Nikola Gruevski continues to enjoy the highest public support from among all Macedonian politicians.

The cited poll included 1000 respondents and was conducted between April 11 and April 14.

Macedonian Parliament voted to dissolve itself on April 14, and Speaker Trajko Veljanovski scheduled the early elections for June 5, after the SDUM had been boycotting the work of the Parliament for months.

The upcoming parliamentary elections will be 7th since Macedonia became an independent state in 1991, and the second snaps polls.

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