Macedonia Opposition MPs Quit Parliament

The 33 MPs from the opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, the Liberal Democrats, LDP, and the New Social Democrats, NSDP, have submitted formal resignations to the speaker of parliament.

They dispute the legitimacy of the April general and presidential elections and attribute the victory of Nikola Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE party to fraud.

“We will not participate in a parliament that does not reflect the real will of the people. No one can influence this standpoint of the opposition,” the SDSM head, Zoran Zaev told the media.

Only Roza Topuzovska-Karovska from the LDP did not tender her resignation. Topuzovska, whose party called her decision “political suicide”, was not available for comment.

“It is true that the battle should be waged within institutions but only when they function in a democratic ambient. The opposition must not be a mere decoration and an alibi to this regime,” the LDP said.

Earlier, Rufi Osmani, the resigning head of the small National Democratic Rebirth party, NDR, the only member of the party to become an MP, also returned his seat for the same reasons.

The resignations of the opposition MPs will not greatly affect the new parliament, as 89 of the 123 seats remain filled, which is more than two-thirds of them.

The ruling majority, led by the VMRO DPMNE party and the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, controls 81 of those seats.

Law professor Osman Kadriu said parliament should now declare the 33 MPs' mandates no longer valid and decide what to do with the empty seats.

“Calling additional elections only for the empty seats would not be legally possible,” he noted.

The opposition insisted that Gruevski's party won both...