Macedonia: SEC - VMRO-DPMNE ahead of SDSM by 15,000 votes

The coalition around VMRO-DPMNE won 444,014 votes, and the coalition around SDSM 428,683, the State Election Commission announced early this morning based on 99.34 percent of counted votes, MIA reports, as carried by Patria.  

Both parties declared victory during the evening.

The president of VMRO-DPMNE and current Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski proclaimed his party's victory in the elections half an hour after midnight. He emphasized that this is not just a victory for the coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE, but a victory for the Republic of Macedonia.

The strongest Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), won 85,774 votes, the BESA Movement 57,749, the Alliance for Albanians 35,103, and DPA 30,971.

DUI leader Ali Ahmeti did not hide his anger last night over the fact that Albanians lost mandates in the early parliamentary elections in Macedonia.

Ahmeti recalled that he had appealed to voters not to waste their votes and give them to smaller parties, but to stick together so that, as he said, DUI would win, and Albanians would not lose, MIA reports.

- I say with anger that Albanians have lost mandates. DUI won the elections, but my primary concern was for Albanians to win, and I am not happy about DUI's victory, Ahmeti said at a press conference in Tetovo.

After counting 85.58 percent of the votes, DUI is the strongest Albanian party in Macedonia with 7.43 percent of the votes won.