North Macedonia Expects Close Vote on Prosecution Law

North Macedonia's parliament was set to start a plenary session on the law on the prosecution later on Monday in a shortened procedure aimed at trying to pass the law by Sunday, when parliament is due to dissolve ahead of early general elections on April 12.

The law is designed to secure the continuation of high-profile corruption cases by boosting the powers and competences of the regular Prosecution Against Organised Crime. If the law passes, it will improve the country's chances of receiving a much-desired date to start EU accession talks.

On Sunday, the leader of the main ruling Social Democratic Union, SDSM, Zoran Zaev, expressed optimism that they had secured a two-thirds majority in parliament, the threshold needed for the bill to pass.

"We have secured a sufficient basis for the procedure," Zaev wrote on Facebook, insisting that although they had accepted suggestions from opposition MPs and groups, they had not made compromises that might jeopardise ongoing court cases. "We secured one key thing - the law does not contain a hidden amnesty," Zaev wrote.

Immediately after this, the caretaker government, holding office during the run-up to elections, during a midnight session, passed the draft and sent it to parliament.

But on Monday it remained unclear whether Zaev had actually mustered enough support from MPs, after Ali Ahmeti, leader of the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, said he had not been informed about what Zaev had agreed.

Adding to the likelihood of a knife-edge vote, in a situation where every vote counts, the small opposition Alliance for Albanians party also said its three MPs would not support the draft, as it differed from what they had previously agreed.

Speaker Talat Xhaferi...