Macedonia Snap Vote Reportedly Tied to Agreement on Transitional Government

No early elections will be held in Macedonia by end-April 2016 if there is no agreement on a transitional government by June 10, the country's Nova TV channel revealed on Tuesday.

Nova reported that according to "high-ranking diplomatic sources from the European Commission", only the framework of  future negotiations has been agreed upon by the Macedonian political leaders in their meeting earlier in the day.

Emerging from the talks, the EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, announced after that the political leaders have agreed to hold early elections by the end of April next year. Hahn attended a meeting of the leaders of the four biggest political parties in Macedonia  - VMRO-DPMNE of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, opposition SDSM of Zoran Zaev, DUI of Ali Ahmeti and DPA of Menduh Thaci - which aimed to find a solution to the country's political crisis. Hahn said a new meeting in the same format is to be held in Brussels next week to discuss details of the agreement to hold snap elections.

Tuesday's agreement ties the holding of snap elections to the creation of a transitional government which will prepare the vote, according to novatv.mk.

It has been agreed that details about a transitional cabinet and all other conditions for a fair political race will be discussed in Brussels on 10 June. If no agreement is reached what transitional government will prepare the elections, then there will be no vote in April 2016, Nova said.