Skopje

Macedonian police said they would charge six people over a brawl that took place on Tuesday in Skopje’s Lisice district between supporters of the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party and the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM.

The affray erupted moments after the opposition Social Democrat presidential candidate, Stevo Pendarovski, left the area.

The OSCE/ODIHR monitoring mission to Skopje said on Monday that the polls were well administered and fundamental freedoms were respected with only “small procedural irregularities” and “instances of organized voting”, but the pre-election campaign failed to provide an even field for all political players.

Incumbent president has big lead in Macedonian election

SKOPJE -- Incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE leads in the Macedonian presidential election, having won 428,000 votes on Sunday.

89 percent of ballots were counted when this figure was announced in Skopje.

Preliminary results from Sunday’s presidential election in Macedonia suggest that Ivanov, who is running for a second five-year term for the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, is leading the count, ahead of his main rival, Stevo Pendarovski who is running for the opposition Social Democrats.

The State Electoral Commission, said that 95 per cent of the votes have been counted so  far.

At their respective general election starting rallies at the weekend, government and opposition parties exchanged accusations on a scale not seen in the gentler presidential race that started two weeks earlier.

BELGRADE - Serbia will be represented at an international book fair in Skopje (from April 8-14), and then in Sarajevo (April 23-28), the National Library of Serbia (NBS) as an executive organizer announced on Monday.

The steel cross, which the authors say will be over 50 metres high, is being speedily assembled in the Skopje municipality of Aerodrom so that it can be opened by Orthodox Easter, celebrated on April 20.

Experts say that if the opposition presidential candidate, Stevo Pendarovski, comes close to the ruling party's candidate, Gjorge Ivanov, on April 13, it will boost the opposition's chances in the subsequent general elections on April 27.

Pictures from Macedonia's capital Skopje can be seen at the European Parliament's visitors center in a short film dedicated to Sofia.

The story presented by the film starts with the 1997 protests that rocked Bulgaria's capital and goes on with later years of transition to market economy in the country.

Local and international organizations seeking to follow the election process will have registered just over 3,000 monitors with the State Electoral Commission by the end of the deadline on Wednesday at midnight.

The civil association MOST, which provided most local monitors for Macedonia's previous elections, said it plans to deploy 2,240 monitors.