Republic of Macedonia
Republic of MacedoniaThe 1998 parliamentary elections in the Republic of Macedonia are being held in two rounds. A total of 120 MP seats are being contested. Out of this total, 35 MPs are being elected on the party lists (proportionally to the number of votes cast for each political party all over the country), and the remaining 85 - by direct competition in the 85 election districts (according to the majority principle).
The first round takes place on October 18. All 35 MP seats under the proportional principle are to be decided in it. Seventeen candidate lists were submitted, according to the government's official elections WWW site (12 from individual political parties, 4 from party coalitions, and 1 from a "group of voters"). There is a 5% threshold (i.e., only candidate lists, which get at least 5% of the total votes cast will participate in the distribution of the 35 seats). The d'Hondt formula is to be used for calculating the exact seat allocation.
In addition, according to article 88 of the Election Law, any candidate who in the first round "gets the majority of the votes cast in his/her constituency" will win outright the place under the majority principle, "provided that the number of votes cast for the candidate constitutes at least one third of registered voters in the corresponding election district".
The second round takes place on November 1 in all election districts where there was no outright winner. Only the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round compete in the second round. The candidate winning the larger number of votes in the second round wins the elections in his/her district.
A total of 1,572,976 voters were registered for the 1998 parliamentary elections. According to the preliminary surveys, the main contestants in the 1998 parliamentary elections in the Republic of Macedonia are:
For additional information, see
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| AP Photo: The opposition leaders Ljubcho Georgievski and Vasil Topurkovski toast after receiving the first results of Macedonia's 1998 parliamentary elections. |
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| AP Photo: Macedonian Prime Minister and SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski votes with his wife Jasna. |
The average turnout was 72.88% (1,146,457 participated and 1,112,704 cast valid votes out of a total of 1,572,976 registered voters).
According to the official results from the the government's elections WWW site, the opposition coalition between VMRO-DPMNE and DA won 38.83% of the votes which translated into 15 MP seats (312,627 votes/28.10%/11 seats for VMRO-DPMNE and 119,351 votes/10.73%/4 seats for DA), the ruling SDSM had 279,795 votes/25.15%/10 seats, the ethnic Albanian coalition PDP/PDPA-NDP 214,360 votes/19.26%/8 seats, and the coalition LDP/DPM 77,788 votes/6.99%/2 seats. No other party or coalition overcame the 5% threshold.
Besides the candidates placed under the proportional (party) vote, the ethnic Albanian parties have placed 12 candidates as clear winners in their election districts 21, 42, 44, 52, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 64, 75, and 81. The opposition coalition placed 6 in the election districts 5, 11, 12, 32, 65, and 69. The ruling SDSM won outright 4 seats in election districts 9, 16, 49 and 50. SPM was the only other party which won an MP seat in election district 15.
In addition to winning the most of the district (majority) races in the first round, the ethnic Albanian candidates also showed impressive strength of their wins. Abdula Aliu (PDP) was elected by 98% of the voters in district 56, Abdurahman Aliti (PDP leader) received 97.26% of the votes in his district 60, and Aslan Selmani (also from PDP) won 94.78% in district 21.
| Party/Coalition | Party List Seats |
Round 1 District (Majority) Seats |
Total MP Seats after Round 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| VMRO-DPMNE/DA | 15 | 6 | 21 |
| SDSM | 10 | 4 | 14 |
| PDP/PDPA-NDP | 8 | 12 | 20 |
| LDP/DPM | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| SPM | 0 | 1 | 1 |
A detailed table is available on a separate page. The table shows the list of MPs from each political party/coalition elected so far. Click here to go to the table.
According to the Electoral Law, if there is no outrigth winner in the district (majority) races, the two candidates who received the most votes will compete in a second round.
According to preliminary and unofficial information published by the daily Dnevnik on October 21 and 22 and Nova Makedonija on October 23, the coalition VMRO-DPMNE/DA appears to have a total of 55 candidates in the second round (39 placed first in their districts in Round 1 and 16 placed second). The ruling SDSM seems to have placed a total of 49 candidates for the second round (14 in first place and 35 in second).
Note that the first round of the elections will be repeated at all 30 polling stations in election district 85 due to irregularities in the voting on October 18.
A detailed table is available on a separate page. The table shows the party affiliation of the candidates who will compete in Round 2 on November 1 or were elected in Round 1. The number of votes for each candidate in the first round is also shown (when available). Click here to go to the table.
There has been an argument between the opposition and the ruling SDMS about the interpretation of the electoral law. The argument revolves around the term "majority" in article 88 of the Election Law which says: any candidate who in the first round "gets the majority of the votes cast in his/her constituency" will win outright a place from that constituency, "provided that the number of votes cast for the candidate constitutes at least one third of registered voters in the corresponding election district". SDSM insists that to be elected in the first round of voting, a candidate needs one third of the votes of the people registered in the constituency as well as more than half of those who actually voted (50% + 1 vote). The opposition claims that a simple majority (the most of those voting) is sufficient, provided that also constitutes at least one third of the registered voters.
A discussion on the subject between the VMRO-DPMNE leader Georgievski on one hand, and the justice minister Gjorgi Spasov and the SDSM spokesperson Radmila Sekerinska on the other was shown on Macedonian TV. Georgievski pointed in the debate to a news report stating that before the elections the justice minister Gjorgi Spasov also did not consider the law to be requiring 50% + 1 majority for an outright win. Mr. Spasov, however, denied that and claimed that this part was essentially re-written from the election law which applied to the 1990 and 1994 elections. Mr. Georgievski pointed out, that the "50% + 1" requirement was dropped from the recently passed election law.
According to MIA, the State Election Commission President Liljana Ristova Ingilizova has sided with the ruling SDSM at a press conference, interpreting "majority" as "even one vote over the half of the number of voters". Moreover, she rejected even the possibility for a different interpretation, implying that opposition's interpretation is tantamount to an attempt to "change the Law for election of the representatives passed by the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia". According to the SDSM-leaning daily Nova Makodonija, the ethnic Albaninan PDP leader Abdurahman Aliti also had the same interpretation of the law.
Georgievski vowed to petition the appropriate courts of the republic on the issue. Within the terms specified by the law, petitions were filed by VMRO-DPMNE regarding the polls in election districts 10 (Strumica), 28 (Veles), 35 (Prilep) and the Skopje election districts 62 and 63 (Gazi Baba), and 68, 70 i 71 (Kisela Voda).
The observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe noted the imprecise formulation of the law allowing different interpretations in their preliminary statement about the second round of the elections: "It is extremely regrettable that the law was drafted in an apparently imprecise manner, as it is highly irregular for such a debate to have to take place after the first day of the election. In addition, it is imperative that a consistent interpretation is in effect for all districts."
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| BBC Photo: The leader of the coalition "For Changes" Ljubcho Georgievski casts his vote on November 1, 1998. |
The vote was completed at all 2083 polling stations by 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on November 1. The political parties had estimates within hours of the end of the voting. VMRO-DPMNE/DA claimed the win in the elections, while Branko Crvenkovski, prime minister until now and leader of the leftist SDSM, conceded the defeat of his party.
According to preliminary data provided by the State Election Commission, the overall turnout in the second round of the elections was 69.9% Out of the total of 1,106,513 registered voters in the election districts in which the second round was held, 774,362 cast their votes.
All of the MP seats distributed in the second round were distributed according to the majority principle (in individual district races).
After determining the preliminary distribution of 118 of the overall 120 MP seats, the State Election Commission declared the opposition coalition VMRO-DPMNE/DA a winner in the elections with 58 MP seats. The ruling SDSM gained 29 MP seats. The coalition of ethnic Albanian parties PDP/PDPA-NDP won 24 seats (PDP - 14 and PDPA-NDP - 10). The liberal coalition LDP/DPM gained 4 MP seats, the Socialists from SPM - 2, and SRM (Alliance of the Romas) - 1.
A number of complaints were filed by the political parties and candidates.
After considering the complaints, the State Election Commission decided to repeat on November 15 the second round vote at a number of polling stations in 6 election districts due to irregularities in the original voting. The table below shows the election districts and polling stations involved. It is based on information from Dnevnik and Nova Makedonija.
| Election District | Polling Stations |
|---|---|
| 2 | 0586, 0591, 0601 and 0605 |
| 4 | 0837 and 0848 |
| 14 | 1571, 1532 and 1534 |
| 41 | 0525, 0520, 0279, 0277, 0278, 0246 and 0255 |
| 47 | 1265 |
| 61 | 2133 |
In addition, the second round in election district 34 was postponed until November 15 altogether since round 1 took place in some of its parts on November 1.
VMRO-DPMNE/DA had candidates in all 7 election districts with second round vote on November 15, SDSM had 6 candidates, and the Socialists - one.
The second round vote also had to be repeated at 6 polling stations in election district 66 on November 22.
According to preliminary results, VMRO-DPMNE/DA won 5 of the 7 races on November 15. The election districts where VMRO-DPMNE/DA managed to win are: 14, 34, 41, 47, 61. As a result, the coalition "For Changes" has a total of 62 MP seats - a majority in the 120-seat parliament.
SDSM gained the other 2 MP seats contested on Novermber 15 in the election districts 2 and 4. This gave the incumbent party a total of 27 seats.
According to preliminary results, after the repeated balloting at 6 polling stations, Nazmi Kadriu from PDPA-NDP won the elections in district 66. He gained a total of 5,360 votes against the 5,065 votes of the independent Nazmi Maliki.
Note: the table below is based on preliminary information and is accurate as of November 22.
| Party/Coalition | Party List Seats |
Round 1 District (Majority) Seats |
Total MP Seats after Round 1 |
Estimated Round 2 District (Majority) Seats |
Estimated Total MP Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VMRO-DPMNE/DA | 15 | 6 | 21 | 41 | 62 |
| SDSM | 10 | 4 | 14 | 13 | 27 |
| PDP/PDPA-NDP | 8 | 12 | 20 | 5 | 25 |
| LDP/DPM | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| SPM | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| SRM | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Out of the 25 MP seats of the ethnic Albanian parties, PDP won 14. PDPA-NDP gained the other 11 seats and is a prime candidate to join VMRO-DPMNE and DA in a governing coalition.
For additional news reports, check the Macedonian News Links from the Republic of Macedonia News Collection WWW page.
