Macedonia's court rules re-run in one polling station

Macedonia's Administrative Court decided on Wednesday to allow a re-run of the general election in one polling station.

The court said that it accepted the complaint filed by the main opposition party SDSM (Macedonian Social Democratic Union), which requested a re-voting in a poll center in the commune of Tearce in northwestern Tetovos region due to irregularities occurred during the Dec. 11 election.

The re-voting could alter the results, as the gap between the two main parties, the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE and opposition party SDSM, is very slim.

Data published by the State Elections Commission (SEC) show that VMRO-DPMNE won four parliamentarian seats in this constituency, while SDSM garnered 3.

So if SDSM wins another seat in this constituency, the general result of the elections would change.

VMRO-DPMNE declared Tuesday night that it would not participate in the re-voting process.

According to VMRO-DPMNE led by Nikola Gruevski, the decision to hold a re-voting in Tearce was an attempt to take away the victory that his party got in the Dec. 11 elections.

Spokesperson of VMRO-DPMNE considered the ruling of Administrative Court as a decision based on political motives.

VMRO-DPMNE has said clearly that it would not recognize the result of the re-voting to be held on Sunday.

Actually, parties of SDSM and BESA filed a total of 16 complaints to the SEC, which turned down 15 of them.

According to preliminary results, VMRO-DPMNE won 51 seats, while SDSM got 49 seats. Endit