Macedonia Holds Election Re-Run

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 difference in the votes on December 11 between VMRO DPMNE and the SDSM in the sixth electoral unit, where Tearce is located, was just 304 votes in favour of the ruling party.

For a shift in number of MPs to happen it would take SDSM to annul this difference which many consider very unlikely.

On December 11 the result in Tearce was just four votes more for the ruling party. Of the registered 714 voters there, 404 cast their ballot. 93 voted for the ruling party while 89 voted for the opposition. The other votes were spread out among the ethnic Albanian parties.

For the purpose of general elections, Macedonia is divided into six electoral units, each contributing 20 seats in the 120-seat parliament. The number of MPs won by the parties in each electoral unit is calculated by a proportional model dependent on the won votes.
The polling station in Tearce opens at 7am and the voting will last untill 7pm.

Ruling party boycotts the re-run:

The ruling party which accused the State Electoral Commission, DIK, the Administrative Curt and foreign ambassadors for conducting an "illegal", "electoral engendering" intended to steal their narrow election victory, said it would boycott the voting.

However, DIK said that it will not alter the voting papers for the re-run, meaning that the option for voting for the ruling party will remain.

Meanwhile, the NGO Civil, which is at the forefront of...