Elections in the Republic of Macedonia

Political observers suggest that after the Sunday's polls almost ended in a dead heat, a renewal of the past government coalition between the main ruling VMRO DPMNE and its junior ethnic Albanian partner, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI - although technically possible - is very unlikely.

The ruling VMRO-DPMNE led by long-time Prime Minister of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski has won the most votes in early elections held on Sunday.

Gruevski's party received 38.06 percent of the cast ballots, while opposition leader Zoran Zaev and his coalition around the SDSM won 36,69 percent.

Macedonia's general election result remains in deadlock after the latest results suggested that while the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party won more votes than the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, it is not clear whether this will translate into more seats in parliament.

The winner of the early parliamentary elections in Macedonia was still unknown on Monday morning.

Both the ruling VMRO-DMPNE and the opposition SDSM have declared victory.

VMRO-DPMNE party, which has dominated Macedonian politics since 2006, has a 1.24% lead on socialist rival SDSM in Sunday's election, official results show.

With nearly all the vote counted, the party of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has got 37.98% of the vote.

Support for SDSM of Zoran Zaev is at 36.74%, according to the Central Election Commission (DIK)'s website.

Both main parties claimed victory in Macedonia's general election on Sunday night. While the main ruling VMRO DPMNE claimed a slight lead of some 20,000 votes across the country, the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, came out celebrating in front of the government HQ in Skopje, insisting it won one or possibly two more seats than their rivals.

SKOPJE, MACEDONIA —
Polls opened Sunday in Macedonia for a general election called two years early as part of a Western-brokered agreement to end a paralyzing political crisis.

Polling stations will be open in Macedonia until 7pm Sunday in an early general election in which more than 1.7 million people have a right to vote. They will be electing 123 legislators from six electoral districts. Three more legislators will be elected from the votes in diaspora.

Voting has begun in Macedonia, in an election postponed twice this year and seen as a way of the political crisis.

Conservative VMRO-DPMNE of Nikola Gruevski, which has dominated Macedonian politics for a decade, and opposition SDSM of Zoran Zaev, are expected to win the biggest share of the vote.

As the election campaign in Macedonia draws to its end on Friday at midnight, ahead of  Sunday's vote, some of the politician's statements about the countr and its crisis stick out more than others.

1. Confiscation, not federalization: