May 18 (SeeNews) - Macedonia's parliament decided to cancel the June 5 early general elections, following a Constitutional Court decision taken earlier in the day to suspend election-related activities until it decides whether parliament's dissolution last month was lawful.
During an extraordinary parliamentary session called by parliament speaker Trajko Veljanoski, 96 lawmakers in the 123-seat parliament voted in favour of the polls cancellation, as no one abstained or voted against, data from the country's parliament indicated on Wednesday.
Macedonia's ruling VMRO DPMNE is the only party that has registered candidates for the June 5 vote with the elections committee. 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.