Elections in the Republic of Macedonia

The ruling VMRO DPMNE party is mulling fresh general elections this November, the coordinator of the party's legislators, Ilija Dimovski, told the media.

"Time will tell whether elections will be held only for the vacant 31 seats of the opposition, or for all the 123 seats in parliament," Dimovski said on Monday.

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Macedonia's main opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM - which has boycotted parliament since the April elections, claiming the government parties won them by fraud - declined to take part in Friday's DIK session, which proposed door-to-door checkups on whether voters are who they say they are.

The Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, has threatened to leave Macedonia's parliament in protest after one of its MPs, Orhan Ibrahimi, exchanged punches with Rexhail Ismaili, an MP from the junior ruling party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.

Several other legislators then joined in the brawl.

Despite the absence of opposition legislators, a plenary session of the Macedonian parliament is expected to approve a package of seven government-proposed changes to the constitution on Wednesday or Thursday.  

One of the proposed changes, which has drawn criticism from human rights activists, will define marriage more narrowly as a union strictly between one man and one woman.

Macedonia's opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, has accused Chief Prosecutor Marko Zvrlevski of deliberately choosing a national holiday to let slip that the Police Minister will be not investigated for corruption.

The announcement emerged over the August 2 holiday of St Elijah,  Ilinden in Macedonian, when Macedonia celebrates one of its biggest national vacations.

Macedonia's ruling parties have gained the approval they need to enact changes to the constitution after 82 of the 123 MPs approved the changes, which is more than the two-thirds majority needed.

Six legislators from the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, voted against while one legislator abstained.

Macedonia's main ruling party, VMRO DPMNE, says Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has launched a new initiative to end the years-long stalemate over a national headcount.

The Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, said it will file amendments to the proposed constitutional changes in a bid to ensure greater use of the Albanian language and national symbols in the country.

The DPA said it would make its case at the start of the parliamentary session on government’s constitutional changes on Tuesday.

The motion to define marriage strictly as a union of one man and one woman, submitted at the weekend, was one of the first orders of business of the conservative Government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski  after it was re-elected in April.

The ruling VMRO DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has said it is willing to accept European mediation in further talks with the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, after a first attempt at dialogue made no progress.