Clock Ticks for Macedonia President to Offer Mandate

The new speaker of Macedonia's parliament, Talat Xhaferi, on Thursday confirmed that he has sent a letter to President Gjorge Ivanov informing him that the Social Democrats command a majority in parliament - and so expect to be offered a mandate to form a government. The presidential cabinet has not yet confirmed receiving the notice.

The head of the Social Democrats, SDSM, Zoran Zaev, who is expecting to receive the long overdue mandate, on Thursday said he hoped Ivanov would respond soon, allowing for the speedy formation of the new government, preferably this month.

After talking to OSCE representatives in Skopje, Zaev said he and his coalition partners from the ethnic Albanian bloc wished to meet Ivanov to again allay the President's stated concerns that his new cabinet might jeopardize the country's unity.

Under the constitution, Ivanov has a duty to award the mandate to whichever party or coalition commands a majority in parliament within ten days of receiving official notice of this from parliament.

The new majority has an additional 20 days to agree on the new cabinet, which is then put to a vote in parliament.

Zaev said he hoped the entire process would proceed without further incidents caused by his bitter rivals in the former ruling VMRO DPMNE party led by Nikola Gruevski.

However, after the violence seen in parliament last Thursday, when protesters stormed in and assaulted MPs, Zaev did not exclude the possibility of further obstruction.

The violence followed the election of the new speaker by the new majority, which controls at least 67 of the 120 seats in parliament.

Supporters of the VMRO DPMNE party stormed the parliament building and injured some 100 people including MPs and...