Macedonia to conduct revote in 193 polling stations

08/06/2008

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- The State Election Commission (SEC) announced on Saturday (June 7th) that it will conduct a revote on June 15th in the 193 polling stations (out of 2,976) that registered major violations in the June 1st election. Such violations included ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and violence that killed one person and injured a dozen. Around 170,000 voters are eligible to revote. A revote will likely determine which of the two ethnic Albanian parties (the Democratic Union for Integration and the Democratic Party of Albanians) will join the ruling coalition.

Although the VMRO-DPMNE won enough seats to govern by itself, ruling coalitions generally include a party representing Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who comprise around a quarter of the population. If the Constitutional Court upholds the ruling of the SEC, the vote will be repeated on June 15th. (A1, AFP, Makfax, AP, B92 - 07/06/08)