August 24 (SeeNews) - The leader of Macedonia's biggest opposition party, socialist SDSM, Zoran Zaev, said on Wednesday he expects the country's four key political chiefs to agree next week on a new election date to be set in December.
Macedonia, which has been in deep political crisis for more than a year-and-a-half now, missed two scheduled election dates earlier this year - in April and in June - as its political leaders failed to agree on key issues that should guarantee free and fair polls to end the stalemate.
"I am expecting everybody to behave in a serious manner at the meeting to take place on August 31, on which we will confirm that the next early parliamentary elections will be held in December," Zaev said at a meeting with the Slovak ambassador to Skopje, Martin Bezak.
In July, Macedonia's four main political parties - ruling conservative VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM, and ethnic-Albanian DUI and DPA - reached a crucial consent on key issues, like the cleaning of the voters list and improving media freedom. The agreement, which included also a reaffirmed support to the special prosecutor and a strengthened focus on the inclusiveness of the process on reforms and their implementation, came one year after the first EU/U.S.-brokered Przino deal, which later stalled, deepening Macedonia’s political stalemate.
By August 31, the four leaders should have assessed whether the agreed steps have been completed and the conditions for holding elections fulfilled.
The political crisis in Macedonia started in January 2015, when Zaev accused the coalition government of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI of corruption, wiretapping illegally more than 20,000 people and covering-up a murder. It deepened in April, when president Gjorge Ivanov surprisingly halted investigations against 56 officials suspected of being involved in the wiretapping scandal, triggering continuing mass street protests. In June, Ivanov revoked all controversial pardons after strong pressure from the country's Western partners.