Macedonians are scheduled to cast their ballots on Wednesday in an early presidential election following the surprising death of the late president Boris Trajkovski in a February plane crash.

Among the four candidates approved by Macedonia's central electoral committee, Branko Crvenkovski, the incumbent prime minister from the ruling SDSM alliance, is projected to grab a bigshare of the ballots, local analysts say.

Crvenkovski, 41, is a veteran politician in Macedonia. He served as the country's first prime minister after Macedonia gained independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991, and again tookup the post in September 2002 after a peace deal in August 2001 ended a seven-month conflict between ethnic Albanian rebels and government troops.

Crvenkovski's campaign depicted him as a capable and experienced leader. "We need good inter-ethnic relations, peace and stability," he told a rally on Monday. "It means membership in NATO and the European Union. Let us grab the chance."

In Macedonia, the role of the president is largely ceremonial, but Trajkovski showed that the president could use the endowed power to successfully avoid a national crisis -- with the help of the European Union and the NATO, he pulled the country back from the brink of a civil war in 2001.

"Macedonia needs a president who knows how to make the right decisions at the opportune moment," Crvenkovski said ahead of the voting.

The other three candidates are Sasko Kedev, 41, of the opposition central-right VMRO-DPMNE party; Gezim Ostreni, 62, of the ethnic Albanian party Democratic Union for Integration; and Zidi Xhelili, 43, of the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians.

In his campaign, Kedev promised a "new face" for Macedonia in which "justice, security and success" will prevail. "Same as a human body, Macedonian society needs purified arteries nowadays," he said.

Ostreni insisted that Macedonia be a "multi-ethnic state, wherehuman rights are respected regardless of national or ethnic background."

Xhelili said he aims to consolidate "a full implementation of the peace accord" reached between leading Macedonian and ethnic Albanian parties.

A minimum 50 percent turnout of eligible voters is required to validate the presidential race. Analysts worry that due to indifference to politics, many voters could be reluctant to go to polling booths and thus lead to a failure of the election.

With four candidates in the race, even Crvenkovski is unlikely to net 50 percent of votes needed for an outright victory in Wednesday's voting, and a runoff between two leading candidates will be held on April 28, analysts say.

Source: Xinhua