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Europe
Macedonia |
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Republic of Macedonia is the constitutional name, used by the UK since 1999 for bilateral and internal purposes. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is used in multilateral forums such as the EU or UN. Last reviewed: 06 August 2009 |
Country information
POLITICS
Macedonia is a parliamentary democracy. Parliamentary elections are held every four years, when the Prime Minister is elected. The President of Macedonia is elected for a five-year term.
Macedonia held its first multi-party elections in October 1990 when it was still part of Yugoslavia. The nationalist Macedonian Internal Revolutionary Movement (VMRO) won the most seats, but a bloc including Kiro Gligorov's Social Democratic Alliance (SDSM), the Liberal Party and the Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) held a majority. Gligorov became President of the new Republic and was re-elected as President for a five-year term in 1994. At Macedonia's third parliamentary elections in October / November 1998, the opposition VMRO/Democratic Alternative alliance won with an overall majority of 62 out of 120 seats. Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) joined them in the governing coalition. Ljubco Georgievski, leader of VMRO, became the Prime Minister. Boris Trajkovski, who had served as Deputy Foreign Minister in Georgievski's government, was inaugurated as President on 15 December 1999. Municipal elections held in September/October 2000 were again marred by some irregularities and a number of violent incidents.
At the height of the crisis in May 2001 a broad coalition government, including the former opposition SDSM and PDP was formed. The SDSM withdrew on 20 November once parliamentary ratification of the Framework Agreement was complete. Georgievski then reconstituted his government including other minor parties.
The third Parliamentary Elections were held on 15 September 2002 and were considered to be largely fair, free and peaceful. The new government composition was a coalition of two ethnic Macedonian parties (the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)), and the main ethnic Albanian party (the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI)), a successor party to the National Liberation Army. The official turnout on the Election Day was 73.15%. SDSM and LDP led coalition 'For Macedonia Together' won 60 seats; VMRO-DPMNE and LP won 33 seats; DUI 16 seats; DPA 7 seats; PDP 2 seats; NDP 1 seat and SPM 1 seat.
Presidential elections were brought forward from the autumn to April 2004 due to the death of President Trajkovski in a plane crash on 26 February 2004. The incumbent Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski was voted in as President, and former Interior Minister Hari Kostov replaced Crvenkovski as Prime Minister. Kostov resigned on 15 November 2004 and was replaced by Vlado Buchkovski on 17 December 2004. The first round of municipal elections took place on 13 March and the second round on 27 March, with an additional second round in nine municipalities, including the city of Skopje and re-run contests in a further eleven on 10 April. The elections were held six months late due to the delayed agreement over municipal boundaries.
The fourth Parliamentary elections were held on 5 July 2006. The OSCE declared that the elections had generally met international standards despite isolated incidents during the election campaign and isolated irregularities on polling day itself. The official turnout on the Election Day itself was 56%. After a revote in some polling stations on 19 July 2006, the State Election Commission announced that the VMRO-DPMNE led coalition held 45 parliamentary seats (44 before the revote). DUI-PDP coalition – 17 (18 before the revote), SDSM led coalition – 32, DPA – 11, NSDP – 7, VMRO-National – 6 DOM N.D. PEI – 1.
Recent Political Developments
The fifth Parliamentary elections were held on 1 June 2008. These early elections were proposed by the Democratic Union for Integration after Greece vetoed Macedonia's bid to join NATO at the 2008 Bucharest summit due to their dispute over the ‘name issue’. The request was supported by the ruling coalition of VMRO–DPMNE and the Democratic Party of Albanians. This is the first time since independence in 1991 that Macedonia has held parliamentary elections early.
During the election period there were numerous security-related incidents, mainly reflecting rivalries between the two main ethnic Albanian parties, DUI and DPA. On the Election Day itself, the OSCE assessed that the key international standards were not met, as organised attempts to violently disrupt the electoral process in parts of the ethnic Albanian areas made it impossible for voters in many places to freely express their will. Due to this, voting had to be rerun in 193 polling stations (out of 2,976) on 15 June 2008. Further re-runs were also held in a handful of polling stations on 29 June.
After the re-run, the VMRO-DPMNE led coalition "For Better Macedonia" had won 63 (out of 120) parliamentary seats; SDSM led coalition "Sun-Coalition for Europe" - 27, Democratic Union for Integration (DUI [BDI in Albanian]) - 18, Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA [PDSh in Albanian]) - 11, and Party for European Future (PEI) – 1. The re-elected Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, formed a coalition with the ethnic Albanian party winning most votes, DUI. In objection to changes to some polling results from reruns, VMRO’s former coalition partner DPA decided to boycott parliament. The recent public arrest of the Deputy leader of SDSM (the main ethnic Macedonian party in Opposition) also led to them boycotting parliament.
Under current rules, the President is elected by the people. Presidential elections are held in a five-year cycle. The fifth presidential elections were held in 22 March 2009 with a second round in 5 April 2009.
According to the electoral law, the president is elected if he wins the votes of the majority of the registered voters in the first round; or, a simple majority of the votes in the second round, in which the turnout must be over 40% of the registered voters.
Presidential elections 2009 were held on the same day as Local elections. There were seven presidential candidates, six appointed by political parties and one independent. VMRO-DPMNE, appointed Gjorgje Ivanov as the party's presidential candidate; the biggest opposition party, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, appointed the former Minister of Internal Affairs and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Ljubomir Frčkoski; the Liberal Democratic Party appointed Nano Ružin; New Democracy put forward Imer Selmani; Democratic Union for Integration appointed Agron Buxhaku; Democratic Party of Albanians put forward Mirushe Hoxha; and the independent candidate was Ljube Boškoski.
According to the results of the first round, the candidate from VMRO DPMNE, Gjorgje Ivanov, and the candidate of SDSM, Ljubomir Frčkoski, qualified for the second round.
In the second round on April 5, Gjorgje Ivanov from VMRO DPMNE was elected president with 453,616 votes (63%), with Frčkoski securing 264,828 votes (37%). Since these elections, the previous President, Crvenkovski, has returned to lead the opposition SDSM party.
Under the current electoral code there are two rounds of voting in municipal elections. However, only municipalities where there is no outright winner in the first round of voting for mayor go through to a second round. Voting also takes place for members of the municipal councils, whose number is determined according to the population size of each municipality. 365 mayoral candidates stood in the 2009 municipal elections for 85 seats. 13,709 candidates stood for municipal councillor positions, of which 1391 were elected. In the overall results, VMRO DPMNE won 55 mayoral seats including the capital city of Skopje, SDSM won nine, DUI won 14, and DPA won one in Tetovo.
