December 13 (SeeNews) - Conservative VMRO-DPMNE party will have 51 of 123 seats in Macedonia's parliament, closely followed by main opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) with 49 seats, figures from the State Election Commission (SEC) showed on Tuesday.
Besides VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, four ethnic Albanian parties would enter parliament following the EU-brokered early general election held on December 11, according to figures posted on the SEC website.
Ethnic Albanian Democratic Union of Integration (DUI), which governed in coalition with VMRO-DPMNE prior to prime minister Nikola Gruevski's resignation earlier this year, will have 10 seats.
According to local political researcher Andreja Stojkovksi approached by SeeNews for a comment, VMRO-DPMNE is likely to revive its coalition with DUI to form the country's next government.
Ethnic Albanian BESA Movement, which participated in parliamentary elections for the first time, will have five representatives in parliament, according to SEC.
The Alliance for the Albanians, which comprises three political parties is expected to take 3 seats, while Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), previously seen as the main ethnic Albanian party in opposition to VMRO-DPMNE, would gain only 2 mandates.
The remaining three seats are for MPs elected by Macedonian citizens living abroad.
Based on 99.97% of the ballots counted, VMRO-DPMNE, led by Gruevski, won 38.12% of the votes, while SDSM, led by Zoran Zaev, was supported by 36.66% of the voters, according to SEC data.
"All in all, the elections were not as decisive for the country to seek a new alternative, one that is different from the EU and NATO, and were not that decisive to see Macedonia becoming more closely related to Russia and the illiberal regimes," Stojkovksi, president of the Macedonian Centre for European Training (MCET), told SeeNews in an emailed statement on Monday.
The early vote was held as a part of an EU-brokered agreement among Macedonia's main political parties aimed at resolving a protracted political crisis.
In 2014 parliamentary elections, VMRO-DPMNE won 61 seats, whereas SDSM got 34 seats. Back then, DUI obtained 19 seats versus 7 for opposition DPA.