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Macedonian president insists on majority seats for forming government

Xinhua, February 2, 2017 Adjust font size:

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov said Wednesday that the party or coalition to be mandated to form a new government should be the one having majority in parliament, local media reported on Thursday.

Ivanov made the announcement after several meetings with heads of main political parties on Wednesday.

According to the president, Macedonia's Constitution stipulated that the certain party or coalition needs to prove that it has majority seats at the parliament first, then can it have the mandate to form a new government.

Conservative VMRO-DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski was given the mandate on Jan. 9 to form a government as he won the majority of parliamentary seats in Dec. 11 elections, but he failed to reach agreement with ethnic Albanians during the 20-day period.

Gruevski said the best way to get the country out of the political crisis would be fresh elections.

On the other hand, opposition Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev asked the president to give him the mandate to form a new government.

Neither the VMRO-DPMNE nor the Social Democrats can form a coalition government without the support of ethnic Albanians, who make up one third of Macedonia's population. Endi