January 15 (SeeNews) - Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski officially announced he will resign on Friday, opening the way for early elections on April 24 aimed to put an end to a longstanding political crisis in the country.
"I will submit to the parliament chairman a letter with my resignation as prime minister which will take effect a hundred days before the official election date," Gruevski said in a statement published on the government's website on Thursday.
Gruevski also said that his decision is in line with the agreement that the four main political parties, with international mediation, signed in the summer on early elections.
"I want us to finally leave behind all uncertainty, problems and conflicts, so that our country can move forth and continue to develop strongly," he added.
The political crisis in the country started last January when opposition leader Zoran Zaev accused the coalition government of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE and the ethnic Albanians' DUI of corruption, wiretapping illegally thousands of people and covering-up a murder. For its part, the government has charged Zaev with trying to destabilize the country.
The political crisis was exacerbated by an anti-terrorist operation in the northern town of Kumanovo in May which ended with eight policemen and a dozen gunmen killed and some 40 wounded, raising concerns about possible inter-ethnic violence.
The country was on the brink of civil war in 2001 after minority ethnic Albanians took up arms, demanding bigger rights. The conflict ended in August 2001 with the European Union-brokered Ohrid Agreement, which gave ethnic Albanians wider civil freedoms in exchange for guerrilla disarmament which ended in 2003.
Macedonia was granted European union candidate status in December 2005. In October 2009, the European Commission recommended the opening of accession negotiations with Macedonia but later postponed the launch of entry talks country due to Greece’s opposition to the name of the country.
The Commission has repeatedly said that Macedonia can start accession negotiations once it resolves its name dispute with Greece. In 2008, Greece also blocked an invitation to Macedonia to join NATO.
Gruevski, leader of the VMRO-DPMNE party, is serving a fourth term as prime minister.