December 8 (SeeNews) - Macedonia will hold early general elections on December 11 under an EU-brokered agreement among the country's main political parties that aims to resolve a prolonged political crisis.
A total of eleven parties and coalitions are competing to enter the 123-seat parliament.
The main contenders are conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, led by former prime minister Nikola Gruevski who resigned in January to open the way for early elections, and main opposition party, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), led by Zoran Zaev.
Other major participants in the race are ethnic Albanian Democratic Union of Integration (DUI), which governed in coalition with VMRO-DPMNE prior to Gruevski's resignation, and opposition Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA).
The country is divided into six election districts, which elect 20 members of parliament each under a proportional representation system with no election threshold. Three MPs are elected by Macedonian citizens living abroad.
The members of parliament are elected for a four-year term.
A total of 1,784,416 Macedonian citizens are eligible to vote. Out of the total, 1,551,941 voters aged 18 and over have been registered to cast ballots in Sunday's snap vote in Macedonia, whereas 20,573 were registered to vote abroad. A total of 230,122 Macedonian passport holders residing abroad have not declared willingness to vote at embassies or consular offices.
In 2015, Macedonia had a population of 2,071,278.
The vote will be monitored by 3,623 international and 521 domestic observers.
Polling stations will open 0700 CET and close at 1900 CET.
The vote will be the ninth general election in Macedonia since 1990. Macedonia proclaimed independence from the former Yugoslav federation in 1991. The latest parliament, now dissolved, was also elected in a snap vote, in April 2014.
The political crisis in Macedonia broke out in January 2015, when Zaev accused the coalition government of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI of corruption, illegal wiretapping of more than 20,000 people and covering-up a murder. The crisis deepened in April 2016, when president Gjorge Ivanov surprisingly halted criminal investigations against 56 officials suspected of being involved in the wiretapping scandal. The move triggered massive street protests. In June, Ivanov revoked all controversial pardons under pressure from the country's western partners.
Macedonia missed two scheduled election dates earlier this year - in April and June - as its political leaders failed to agree on key issues that should guarantee free and fair elections to end the stalemate.
In July, the four main political parties - VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM, DUI and DPA - reached an agreement on key issues such as the cleaning up of the voter lists and improving media freedom. The agreement, which included also a reaffirmed support to the special prosecutor and a sharper focus on the inclusiveness of the process on reforms and their implementation, came one year after the EU-brokered Przino agreement.
A caretaker government was formed on September 2 with the task to organise snap elections in December. The parliament dissolved itself on October 17.
In its Autumn 2016 Economic Forecast report published in November the European Commission revised its projection for Macedonia's GDP growth in 2016 to 2.1% from 3.5% forecast in May due to the protracted political crisis.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) also lowered its forecast for the country's economic growth in 2016, to 2.1% from 3.2% growth projected in May.
Macedonia's average consumer price annual deflation in the first eleven months of 2016 was 0.2%.
Sources:
- State Election Commission
- State Statistical Office