Macedonian parliamentary election

Nearly complete results in Macedonia's early general elections show the country's conservative coalition in a slim victory over its Social Democratic rivals, but with neither party winning enough parliamentary seats to form a government. Both sides have claimed victory.

Macedonia's general election result remains in deadlock after the latest results suggested that while the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party won more votes than the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, it is not clear whether this will translate into more seats in parliament.

The winner of the early parliamentary elections in Macedonia was still unknown on Monday morning.

Both the ruling VMRO-DMPNE and the opposition SDSM have declared victory.

VMRO-DPMNE party, which has dominated Macedonian politics since 2006, has a 1.24% lead on socialist rival SDSM in Sunday's election, official results show.

With nearly all the vote counted, the party of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has got 37.98% of the vote.

Support for SDSM of Zoran Zaev is at 36.74%, according to the Central Election Commission (DIK)'s website.

Both main parties claimed victory in Macedonia's general election on Sunday night. While the main ruling VMRO DPMNE claimed a slight lead of some 20,000 votes across the country, the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, came out celebrating in front of the government HQ in Skopje, insisting it won one or possibly two more seats than their rivals.

Polling stations will be open in Macedonia until 7pm Sunday in an early general election in which more than 1.7 million people have a right to vote. They will be electing 123 legislators from six electoral districts. Three more legislators will be elected from the votes in diaspora.

Voting has begun in Macedonia, in an election postponed twice this year and seen as a way of the political crisis.

Conservative VMRO-DPMNE of Nikola Gruevski, which has dominated Macedonian politics for a decade, and opposition SDSM of Zoran Zaev, are expected to win the biggest share of the vote.

An opinion poll published on Monday suggested that the gap between the main ruling VMRO DPMNE and the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM has significantly narrowed while the number of undecided voters who could determine the outcome of the December 11 election is still high.

Parties representing ethnic Albanians in Macedonia - about a quarter of the population - are campaigning on traditional ethnic issues in the December 11 elections, wooing voters with pledges to ensure greater use of the Albanian language and improve of the status of Albanians in the country.

Kurz, who was accused of supporting authoritarianism after appearing at an election rally for Macedonia's embattled ruling VMRO DPMNE party on Sunday, stated that he "attended the rally in my capacity as member of the European People's Party."

The European People's Party is a centre-right transnational coalition made up of other political parties.