Macedonian elections crucial to EU-NATO hopes

Macedonian elections crucial to EU-NATO hopes

July 02, 2006 11:15 AM

SKOPJE, Macedonia-As Macedonia heads into a crucial parliamentary election, the premier has cited the country's "miraculous" recovery from the brink of civil war while the main opposition leader blamed the government for mass unemployment.
European Union and NATO officials say that a free and fair vote Wednesday is critical to the Balkan nation's hopes of joining the 25-member bloc and the military alliance after local elections in March last year were marred by irregularities.
Five years after ethnic conflict threatened to develop into full-scale civil war in the country of 2 million people, nearly a third of whom are ethnic Albanians, the election is seen as a major test for Macedonia's Social Democrat-led governing coalition. A six-month conflict in 2001 between government troops and ethnic Albanian rebels killed some 80 people.
Elections for the 120-seat unicameral parliament were last held in 2002.
"Macedonia has made miracles in the past four years," Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski said at a recent rally in the capital. "Give us the chance to continue this miracle and to bring Macedonia within NATO and EU. This country does not need divisions or radicalism any more."
But NATO warned Macedonia's political parties last week to contain a spate of violent incidents or risk delays in the country's ambitions to join the military alliance.
More than two dozen violent incidents have been reported in the run-up to the election, mostly between supporters of rival ethnic Albanian parties.
Macedonia, along with neighboring Albania and Croatia, is hoping to join NATO when the alliance next takes on new members, probably in 2008.
Far from talking of miracles, opposition leader Nikola Gruevski, leader of the center-right VMRO-DPMNE party, blamed the government for "drowning Macedonia into poverty and corruption."
"The unemployment rate rose from 31 to 38 percent and corruption is undermining the system," Gruevski said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The former Yugoslav republic gained independence in 1991 but has since struggled to revive its economy. It has lagged in attracting foreign investment and job growth has been anemic. The latest official unemployment figure is 36.2 percent.
"We hope to win the elections with an overwhelming majority and have the chance to revive the economy," Gruevski said.
According to a nationwide poll conducted June 24 by the independent Institute for Democracy, Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE has the support of 29.4 percent of voters, putting it ahead of the governing coalition by 7.5 percent. The survey, which questioned 1,113, had a margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Some 2,700 candidates from 33 parties or coalitions are competing for parliament seats.
Macedonia has about 1.7 million registered voters, but recent polls suggested that more than 42 percent of eligible voters had still not decided whether they will even go to the polls.
"At every election in the last 15 years, politicians just blew up their blue and red balloons, which soon afterward deflated," said salesman Nikola Petrovski, 46, referring to the colors of the main political parties in Macedonia.
Smilja Efremeva, a 64-year-old retired teacher from the southern city of Bitolja, said, "There's no real alternative, it's just a struggle for the personal benefits of the politicians and their teams, but not for the country. I don't see anybody who really cares about the country and I will not vote this time."
The recent violence has also added to the sense of voter apathy.
U.S. Ambassador Gillian Milovanovic demanded a halt to the violence when she joined officials from NATO and the EU on a visit to a village where three people were wounded last week in a shootout between rival ethnic Albanian parties.
The EU, which granted candidate status to Macedonia in December, may postpone the start of membership negotiations that are expected to begin next year.
"The parties have not made us an offer," said Rami Jusufi, a jobless 27-year-old who complained about the poor economy and unemployment rate. "They use the campaigning to go against each other."