Zoran Zaev

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.

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.

Former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party has having a 4-5 percent lead on social democrat SDSM of Zoran Zaev, first poll data shows.

The conservative party, which has been at the helm of Macedonia for ten years. has got 41.35%, with nearly a third of the vote counted.

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.

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:

Nikola Gruevski, leader of Macedonia's main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, has been condemned for suggesting that if 19th and 20th century Macedonian freedom fighters were alive today, they would assassinate his main political opponent, Zoran Zaev, head of the Social Democrats.

An opinion poll published on Monday suggested that the gap between the main ruling VMRO DPMNE and the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM has significantly narrowed while the number of undecided voters who could determine the outcome of the December 11 election is still high.

The campaign for the upcoming snap parliamentary elections in Madedonia on December 11 has oficially begun on Monday, reported BGNES.

These will be the ninth parliamentary elections since the country declared independence in 1991. A total of 11 parties and coalitions will take part in the elections.

BELGRADE - Thousands of Macedonians took to the streets to participate in a peaceful antigovernment protest, RFE/RL reports.

The demonstration in the capital, Skopje, on October 11 was organized by the main opposition party, the Social Democrats.