Macedonia to hold presidential, local elections on March 15th

08/10/2008

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Presidential and local elections will occur on March 15th 2009, leaders of the four biggest parties in the country agreed on Tuesday (October 7th). The ruling VMRO-DPMNE and Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) and the opposition Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM) and Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) also agreed that the turnout threshold for the presidential election should be cut from 50% to 40%.

In other news, the defence ministry said on Tuesday that Macedonia will withdraw its troops from Iraq in late December, after five years in the country. The 77 troops will leave the military base in the town of Taji, about 95km north of Baghdad. (AFP, A1, Makfax, MIA - 07/10/08)