December 19 (SeeNews) - Macedonia made an important step on December 11 by holding fair, democratic and credible elections but has a long way to go to resolve the continuing political crisis, a local political analyst told SeeNews.
Conservative VMRO-DPMNE party will have 51 of 123 seats in parliament, closely followed by main opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) with 49 seats, figures from the State Election Commission (SEC) showed last week. Besides VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, four ethnic Albanian parties will also enter parliament.
The elections were part of a EU-brokered deal aimed to solve a prolonged political crisis, which started in January 2015. Back then, 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 murdеr.
"We made one step forward but I think that after this election we are far from resolving the political crisis in Macedonia," Mitko Gadzovski, political science professor at Skopje's FON University, said in an e-mail in response to SeeNews queries.
According to Gadzovski, the best solution for Macedonia considering the current complicated situation will be to create a grand coalition government comprising representatives of all parties in parliament.
The next government has to be dedicated to carrying out deep reforms in every segment, mentioned in the latest report of the European Commission on Macedonia's progress on the path towards EU accession, he added.