May 18 (SeeNews) - Macedonia's constitutional court on Wednesday banned all election-related activities ahead of the disputed June 5 polls until it decides whether the dissolution of the parliament last month was in line with the country's laws, local media reported.
The decision is set to be published in Macedonia's state gazette later today, several local media outlets wrote.
The court will rule on the issue next week.
In February, the constitutional court rejected two proposals to delay the dissolution of parliament, coming from two separate non-parliamentary organisations. The current initiative comes from the ethnic-Albanian Democratic Union of Integration (DUI), until recently a minor ruling coalition partner, and includes entirely new elements, which require a new analysis, the court noted.
Macedonia's ruling VMRO DPMNE is the only party that has registered candidates for the June 5 vote with the elections committee, whereas the main opposition party, socialist SDSM, and the two ethnic Albanian parties - DUI and the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) - are boycotting the elections.
On Tuesday, the European Commission warned that the international community could not accept as a reliable partner any government resulting from elections in which three out of four major parties are not participating.
The snap vote was part of a EU-brokered deal, known as the Przino agreement, aimed to solve a prolonged political crisis in the country, which started January 2015 when SDSM leader Zoran Zaev accused the coalition government of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE and DUI of corruption, wiretapping illegally more than 20,000 people and covering-up a murder. For its part, the government charged Zaev with trying to destabilise the country.
In mid-April, Macedonia's president Gjorge Ivanov surprisingly halted investigations against 56 officials suspected of being involved in the wiretapping scandal, triggering continuing mass street protests.