May 12 (SeeNews) - Macedonia's ruling VMRO DPMNE was the only party that registered candidates with the elections committee by the Wednesday midnight deadline, local news agency MIA reported.
Earlier on Wednesday, the two ethnic Albanian parties - the Democratic Union of Integration (DUI) and the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) - said they would not register candidates for the June 5 polls, joining the main opposition party, socialist SDSM, in boycotting the elections.
The snap vote was part of a EU-brokered deal 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.
However, in mid-April, Macedonia's president Gjorge Ivanov surprisingly halted investigations against 56 officials related to the wire-tapping scandal, triggering mass street protests, as well as international calls on him to change his mind.
It still remains to be seen whether the general elections will be held on June 5 with only one party taking part in them.