Macedonia's parliament

The leader of the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM , Zoran Zaev, said his party will not participate in the early elections set for June 5, insisting that key reforms, including those in the media to ensure objective election coverage, as well as cleaning up the electoral roll, had not been achieved.

The planned dissolution of Macedonia's parliament takes place on Wednesday amid complaints by smaller opposition parties and NGOs that the country is not yet ready to organize free and fair elections.

"Not one of the three key reforms set by the EU and US has been met," the head of the NGO CIVIL, Xhabir Derala, said.

After a day of tense political talks, Macedonia's parliament voted on Tuesday night to postpone elections originally planned for April 24. The vote followed a joint EU-US assessment saying the country is not yet ready to hold a free and fair general election.

Macedonia's parliament voted on Jan. 18 to dissolve itself as of Feb. 24, clearing the way to an early parliamentary election two months later that the opposition says it will boycott.

Macedonia's parliament is expected to approve a government-proposed bill to establish tax-free health-care "zones" for foreigners.

The bill entered parliamentary procedure last week is likely to pass soon.

The bill will allow foreign - and domestic - healthcare companies to build hospitals in Macedonia exclusively for the use of foreign private patients.

The leaders of the four biggest political parties in Macedonia will meet on Thursday in a bid to reduce the political tensions, the country's private TV channel Telma has reported.

With the absence of opposition MPs, Macedonia's parliament voted late Tuesday to adopt the two most controversial of seven planned changes to the constitution.

Students and professors have announced more protests, boycotts of classes and occupations of public places and teaching facilities after Macedonia's parliament on Wednesday adopted a controversial Law introducing mandatory externally supervised exams for graduates.

As a controversial bill on higher education enters its second reading in Macedonia's parliament this week, protesting students and profssors are appealing to President Gjorge Ivanov - a former political studies professor - to end his silence.

Macedonia's parliament will start the procedure to annul the mandates of 31 opposition MPs in the first half of December, a source from parliament's Committee on Rules of Procedure told BIRN under condition of anonymity.

"Legally, there should be no problem revoking their mandates because the requirement for such a thing will be met," the source said.

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