The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is set to hold a double election on April 27, following its parliament’s decision to dissolve itself.
All 116 parliamentarians voted for the dissolution of the parliament. Parliamentary elecionts were not scheduled until 2015 but now they will be held on the same day as the second round of the country’s Presidential elections - the first round takes place on April 13.
"I want to underline that the election rules for this election process were agreed by both position and opposition which is added responsibility for both as well as obligation this to be respected through the whole process," parliamentary speaker Traiko Veljanoski said.
On Friday the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), a junior partner in the coalition led by the right- wing VMRO-DPMNE, asked for early elections after VMRO-DPMNE refused their proposal for a common presidential candidate. DUI is unwilling to give its support to President Gjorgje Ivanov, who wants to run for a second term.
The biggest opposition party, the Social Democrats (SDSM), accused the coalition partners of staging the crisis as an excuse to take the country to the polls earlier than planned.
Recent polls show that both DUI and VMRO-DPMNE are both popular and would benefit from holding the elections earlier.
FYROM’s ruling coalition is traditionally formed by the country’s largest ethnic Macedonian party (VMRO-DPMNE) and its ethnic Albanian counterpart.
VMRO-DPMNE has been in power since 2006.
FYROM is hoping to eventually aceed to the EU but its 20-year-long dispute over its official name with neighboring EU member Greece is a major obstacle on the way. Greece says FYROM is trying to steal its heritage by wanting to be called Macedonia and using symbols related to the dynasty of Alexander the Great.
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