February 27 (SeeNews) - The leader of the Socialist Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), Zoran Zaev, submitted with the country's president on Monday the signatures of the majority of MPs in the country's 120-seat parliament, proving he has their backing to form a government, Skopje-based media reported on Monday.
Zaev presented to president Gjorge Ivanov the signatures of 67 parliament deputies from SDSM and three ethnic Albanian parties - the Democratic Union of Integration (DUI), former coalition partner of conservative VMRO-DPMNE, the BESA Movement, which took part in parliamentary elections for the first time last December, and the Alliance for the Albanians, state-run news agency MIA reported.
Zaev said that now he expects the president to give him a mandate to form a new government as soon as possible.
Last week SDSM announced it has agreed with the ethnic Albanian parties on the government's programme, party programmes and the law on the language use.
In January, the conservative VMRO-DPMNE, which won a close victory against SDSM in the December early election, failed to agree with ethnic Albanian party DUI on the formation of a coalition government after talks stumbled over the official use of the Albanian language in the country, among other issues. Then president Gjorge Ivanov, following consultations with country's party leaders, decided to award the mandate for forming the new government to the party or coalition of parties which would present him a proof of majority.
VMRO-DPMNE controls 51 of 120 seats in parliament, while SDSM has 49. DUI has 10 seats, while the other three ethnic Albanian parties which entered parliament control 10 seats among themselves.
The early elections in December were part of a EU-brokered deal that aimed to resolve a protracted political crisis. The crisis began in January 2015, when Zaev accused the coalition government of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI of corruption, illegal wiretapping of more than 20,000 people and covering-up a murder. In response, the government charged Zaev with attempting to destabilize the country.