Macedonian Election Set for December

After early parliamentary elections had already been postponed twice this year, the leaders of Macedonia's four main political parties finally reached an agreement on Wednesday evening to hold the vote on December 11.

Nikola Gruevski, the leader of the VMRO DPMNE, Zoran Zaev of the Social Democrats, Ali Ahmeti of the Democratic Union for Integration and Menduh Thaci of the Democratic Party of Albanians agreed all conditions for holding free and fair elections had been met.

The elections are key to ending the country's two-year political crisis.

"The conditions for holding early parliamentary elections in 2016 have been met and we therefore agree to hold the elections on 11 December 2016. The Parliament will be dissolved according to the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia," the joined statement signed by all four leaders read.

An interim government that will organise the parliamentary vote will be elected in September, in accordance with a US/EU brokered deal reached in July.

The Social Democrats will hold the interior and labour ministries and have deputy ministers in the finance, agriculture and administration ministries.

As part of a package of reforms to ensure balanced media reporting ahead of the elections - a condition also set down by the US/EU July deal - the four leaders also agreed on the appointment of Santa Argirova as the new editor-in-chief of the Macedonian public broadcaster.

"Mrs Santa Argirova will be appointed Chief Editor of MTV 1 on 2 September 2016 and will hold the position until the end of the electoral process," the statement read.

Argirova has worked as journalist and editor with several Macedonian TV stations, including the public broadcaster. She has also previously worked at the...