state electoral commission

The rerun in the ethnically mixed village of Tearce, in the north west of the country, could theoretically alter the number of seats won in parliament by the two main parties on December 11 from 51-49 in favour of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party to 50-50 with the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM.

The European Commission expressed "concern" on Monday over the "tensions and the negative rhetoric" present in Macedonia in the past few days.

Spokesperson Maja Kocijancic called on the country's political players to "act responsibly" so that people's faith in Macedonia's institutions and in the democratic processes is restored.

Political observers suggest that after the Sunday's polls almost ended in a dead heat, a renewal of the past government coalition between the main ruling VMRO DPMNE and its junior ethnic Albanian partner, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI - although technically possible - is very unlikely.

Both main parties claimed victory in Macedonia's general election on Sunday night. While the main ruling VMRO DPMNE claimed a slight lead of some 20,000 votes across the country, the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, came out celebrating in front of the government HQ in Skopje, insisting it won one or possibly two more seats than their rivals.

The election monitoring coalition We Decide! (Nie Odlucuvame!), which is running an SOS hotline for reporting electoral irregularities and offers legal help to voters, warned at a press conference on Tuesday that the authorities have failed to fully clean up the electoral roll.

Macedonia's Constitutional Court could potentially put the December 11 general election date on hold if it upholds a motion submitted on Tuesday by a small ethnic Albanian party.

The Uniteti party, which has no seats in parliaiment, says the larger number of registered voters in one of the six electoral districts renders the election unfair and thus illegal.

Civil society groups say legitimate complaints about Montenegro's electoral roll have not been addressed, raising concern about the outcome of the October 16 general election.

With the general elections scheduled for December, the electoral roll check-up designed to secure the conditions for fair polls had serious shortcomings, even though the main parties have said they are satisfied with it, the former head of State Electoral Commission, Aleksandar Novakovski, told BIRN.

The ruling VMRO DPMNE of former prime minister Nikola Gruevski has denied accusations it is practically suspending political pluralism in Macedonia by insisting on competing in June 5 elections alone.

A spokesperson for Macedonia's main ethnic Albanian party, the DUI, - junior party in government - the said that unless all four main political parties participate in the June elections, the credibility of the vote will be questionable and it will not help solve Macedonia's deep political crisis.