Macedonia election: governing conservatives edge ahead as votes counted

Governing conservatives in Macedonia are slightly ahead as votes are counted from Sunday’s general elections.

With more than half the ballot counted, the VMRO-DPMNE had 39% of the vote with the SDSM social democrats on 36%.

Supporters of both parties have taken to the streets claiming victory.

There were no exit polls for Sunday’s election, which was called two years early as part of a Western-brokered agreement to end a paralysing political crisis.

Vlatko Gjorcev, a senior official in Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s party, told supporters at the group’s headquarters: “We won once again. Tonight, today on December 11, the tenth victory in a row.”

Meanwhile SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, quoted by AFP news agency, told a cheering crowd. “We are the winners!”

Source: BBC