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Talks on Macedonia's early elections fail after marathon negotiation

Xinhua, January 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

The four largest political parties in Macedonia failed to agree on a date for early elections Saturday after a nine-hour marathon negotiation attended by European Union(EU) Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn.

The election date talks were held in the EU residence in Skopje neighborhood of Prizno on Friday. According to local media reports, three parties -VMRO-DPMNE, DUI and DPA - were in favor of holding the elections on April 24, whereas the opposition SDSM party stood against the previously agreed date of April 24 as the day for the early parliamentary elections.

SDSM leader Zoran Zaev said his party will not run in the elections until the electoral roll is thoroughly revised.

EU Commissioner Hahn said: "I believe that the government, the political elite and the Parliament should pay attention to this very serious situation, which also affects the country's economy and its Euro-Atlantic perspective."

Hahn also expressed hope the negotiations did not fail as there was still room for an agreement.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Nicola Gruevski, who submitted his resignation on Friday to allow the formation of a caretaker government to organize the election, said after the talks that "Commissioner Hahn, OSCE(the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and ODIHR(OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) also confirmed elections are possible on April 24. We will inform the public on our further steps after we consult."

Hahn left Macedonia early Saturday morning, announcing that the EU mediator and and facilitator in the talks, Peter Vanhoutte, will remain in Skopje to aid the negotiations. Enditem