Nikola Gruevski

At least two opposition MPs in Macedonia say they may return to parliament, defying the opposition’s decision to collectively resign following the April elections, which they deem fraudulent.

Solza Grceva, from the main opposition Socal Democratic Party, SDSM, has until Thursday - when parliament will verify the resignations of the opposition MPs - to decide whether to return.

The DPA’s central presidency said this weekend that it would not become part of the new government led by Nikola Gruevski that is to be officially elected in parliament on Thursday.

The party said it did not believe that Gruevski and his allies, who led the last government, could make a breakthrough on the country's priority issues.

Macedonia's Network of NGOs Against Discrimination - which includes the Macedonian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights - on Tuesday condemned the establishment of an "Institute of Family Studies" at the country's main university.

Macedonia's journalists union is taking the case of the expulsion of reporters from parliament in December 2012 to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.

It decided on this move after the top court in Macedonia ruled that their expulsion from the chamber by police had been done “for their own safety”.

In an interview for state run MIA news Agency, Nikola Gruevski for the first time has denied involvement in a bank sale that the opposition revealed in late April.

“I have never taken a million-and-a-half euros in cash, nor have I in any other way  taken any other sum for the sale of Makedonska Banka. All the other accusations that come out of this are also untrue,” Gruevski said.

The coalition has launched a campaign called ‘Census Now’, saying that Macedonia must not be held hostage by political elites that interrupted the last census because of the sensitive issue of how many ethnic Macedonians and Albanians live in the country.

The opposition led by the Social Democratic Party, SDSM, whose MPs submitted written resignations to parliament last week after alleging fraud at April's elections, is seriously considering setting up a ‘shadow government’, a high-ranking party source told Balkan Insight on Monday.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is suing the head of the Social Democrats, SDSM, Zoran Zaev, for slander, demanding  half-a-million euro in compensation, Zaev's lawyer, Miroslav Vujic, said.

The first court hearing is scheduled for June 19.

The 33 MPs from the opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, the Liberal Democrats, LDP, and the New Social Democrats, NSDP, have submitted formal resignations to the speaker of parliament.

They dispute the legitimacy of the April general and presidential elections and attribute the victory of Nikola Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE party to fraud.

Macedonia's opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, have submitted a forensic analysis conducted in Serbia that they say proves that Gruevski's own voice can be heard on a telephone recording in which a man was discussing the sale of the bank.

The prosecution in Macedonia says it is still deciding whether to take this new alleged evidence into account, however.