Macedonian PM wins presidential race

Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski won the presidential elections Wednesday, the central electoral commission said early Thursday.

As the candidate of the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia, Crvenkovski gained 62 percent of the 99 percent votes counted in the second round of the presidential elections.

His opposition rival Sasko Kedev, the VMRO-DPMNE party's candidate, received 37 percent.

The turnout was 53 percent. It met the requirement of the Macedonian constitution that only when more than 50 percent of the registered voters cast their ballots will the second round election be valid.

The presidential elections were organized after former President Boris Trajkovski died tragically in a plane crash on Feb.26. It is the third one since Macedonia's independence from the former Yugoslavia.

But the opposition alleged voter fraud and called for an annulment of the elections.

Just minutes after the end of voting, Kedev claimed it was the worst election fraud in the history of the country, saying that Crvenkovski was not a legitimate president of Macedonia.

Hundreds of his supporters convened outside the parliament to protest against the race, which they said was the most irregular one, while Crvenkovski's backers celebrated the victory with fireworks.

A spokeswoman for Crvenkovski denied the allegations by saying that it was a fair and democratic election but the opposition has no strength to accept the defeat in a dignified way.

Crvenkovski pledged in his campaign to work for Macedonia's membership of the European Union.

The incumbent prime minister was expected to hand over his postto a political ally.

In the first round of election on April 14, Crvenkovski and Kedev won more votes than the other two candidates, Gzim Ostreni and Zudi Xhelili. Since none of them won the majority in the firstround, they had to compete in the runoff.

Source: Xinhua