Macedonia Political Talks 'Failed', Opposition Says

The head of Macedonia's opposition SDSM party vowed that the socialists will not take part in the early general election on April 24 if they are on scheduled.

Zaev declared the negotiations that took place among political leaders "failure" after the chairmen of the four key parties discussed the situation for hours under the brokerage of EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn who was in Skopje on Friday.

"If elections are held on April 24, SDSM will not take part, since there is no time to create conditions for a fair election race... to clean up the voter lists and... to regulate the state of the media," daily Utrinski vesnik quotes him as saying.

Zaev's comments come hours after the resignation of Nikola Gruevski, the leader of conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, as Prime Minister of the country, under an agreement reached last year with political leaders.

After Friday's talks, Gruevski for his part said that Commissioner Hahn saw no obstacle for elections to take place on April 24.

He also fended off remarks coming from Zaev that elections have to be postponed. The website Telegraf.mk quotes him as saying the opposition leader "knows that the clearing of the voter list can be done in a very short time."

The commissioner himself warned "the state in this moment is in a very bad state," according to local media.