Preliminary results show that the ruling VMRO DPMNE party has won Macedonia's early elections, but the opposition Social Democrats made a strong showing.

The preliminary data from the State Electoral Commission show that the ruling conservative VMRO DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has won 437,665 votes or 39 per cent of the total, after all votes were counted.

However, the main opposition Social Democrats, led by Branko Crvenkovski, have significantly improved over their previous election score, winning 367,876 votes, or 32.78 per cent.

Crvenkovski congratulated his opponent Gruevski for the election victory, but said the opposition comes up much stronger after the polls, doubling the number of legislators it currently has.

“The battle has just begun. Look at what we have accomplished with just 18 legislators and imagine what we can do with 43,” he told the crowd gathered in front of the opposition headquarters in Skopje on Sunday night.

The turnout at the elections was over 63 per cent.

A simulation carried out by the country’s most relevant election monitoring group, the NGO MOST, shows that based on the preliminary results, the ruling party will hold 53 seats in the 123-parliament, while the Social Democrats will control 43.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...l-results-show