December 12 (SeeNews) - The European Parliament (EP) said on Monday it expects Macedonia's new government that will take over after last week's elections to work with all political parties in the country's parliament and to carry out the reforms necessary to put the country back on its Euro-Atlantic integration path.
"In the future we would also like to see the political parties reaching out and overcoming old dividing-lines, including ethnic, in order to build an inclusive society for all", Igor Soltes, head of the European Parliament Delegation to the International Observation Mission, said in a statement.
The European Parliament also called on all parties to provide support to the office of the special prosecutor and its work, Igor Soltes noted.
While acknowledging the efforts dedicated to cleaning the voter list, Soltes said there a sustainable legal solution is needed to increase the accuracy of, and the confidence in the voter list for future elections.
Soltes also expressed his concern about Macedonian media remaining polarised and split along political and ethnic lines.
"We believe it is essential that the important media reforms foreseen in the Przino Agreement are implemented without delay as a means for improving the media climate over the long-term," he said.
About the election day, Igor Soltes commented that the staff at the polling stations was working seriously and with positive attitude. According to him, the local and foreign observers who were monitoring the elections, were well organised. He also mentioned the efforts made to facilitate people with disabilities to cast ballots.
The final results of Sunday's elections is expected to be announced later this evening.
With 99.72% of the ballots counted, conservative VMRO-DPMNE, led by former prime minister Nikola Gruevski, won 38.06% of the votes, whereas opposition party SDSM was backed by 36.69% of the voters, according to preliminary results released on Monday morning by the State Election Commission (SEC).
The elections were part of a EU-brokered deal aimed to solve a prolonged political crisis, which started in January 2015, when opposition leader Zoran Zaev accused the coalition government led by VMRO-DPMNE of corruption, illegal wiretapping of more than 20,000 people and covering-up a murder.