Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity

Two police officers were left injured in the third successive evening of demonstrations in Macedonia's capital Skopje that began over a controversial amnesty decision by the country's President.

Macedonian head of state Gjorge Ivanov on Tuesday halted all proceedings against politicians over the wiretapping scandal that rocked the country last year.

The leader of Macedonia's main opposition party has presented what he describes as a proof that the cabinet interferes with courts, local media suggest.

Zaev, who heads the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), has also been claiming that Gruevski's government is using its powers to eavesdrop on 20 000 people including reporters, religious leaders, and politicians.

Prime Minister Gruevski on Saturday dismissed reports that his governing VMRO DPMNE party was considering early elections as a way of resolving the opposition boycott of parliament.

 "We are not thinking about early elections. We are thinking about elections in 2018," he said, referring to their due date.

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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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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 parliament was expected to endorse the PM's new cabinet since the ruling parties led by Nikola Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE won a solid majority in the assembly at the April general elections.

The vote was 77 in favour and 6 against. No one abstained.

The session passed without almost any opposition MPs present in the chamber.

Political parties in Macedonia have reached an agreement on the country's new cabinet more than two weeks after the country held 2-in-1 elections.

The party says it was only a speculation that the main ruling VMRO DPMNE has set this as a condition for resuming talks on the formation of a new government led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and that they have been pressed to appear at Ivanov’s inaugural session.

Two Serb parties to have seats in parliament in Skopje

SKOPJE -- Two parties representing ethnic Serbs in Macedonia will have deputies in the country's new parliament, elected on Sunday.

One of them - the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia - "will almost certainly join the ruling majority," the Beta news agency is reporting.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov is set to win a second term, while his ruling VMRO-DPMNE is likely to stay in power after Sunday's 2-in-1 elections.

Ivanov has won 505.687 votes, and the ballots cast for his main rival socialist Stevo Pendarovski has been 372.886 after the counting of results in 95% of polling stations.