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Macedonian party urges president again to hand over gov't forming mandate

Xinhua, May 4, 2017 Adjust font size:

Macedonian Social Democratic Union (SDSM) Thursday urged the president, George Ivanov, again to hand over the mandate for the formation of new government as the only way to end the political crisis.

In a statement, SDSM urged the swift power transfer and start of formation of new government to take the country ahead with reform.

SDSM led by Zoran Zaev informed that the program of the reformatory government would be presented to the head of the state, Ivanov, assuring that new government program wouldn't allow bi-nationality.

The reforms of the new government will start and people will soon feel the changes, SDSM said in its announcement.

Meanwhile, speaking to the media Thursday, Zaev said he expected the formation of a new government by the end of May if the president gave him the mandate.

He expressed readiness to meet Ivanov and the coalition partners to provide guarantees over Macedonia's unitary character.

"I am prepared to visit President Ivanov and hold discussions along with the coalition partners, to once again guarantee the country's unitary character, its constitutionality, multi-ethnicity, NATO and EU perspectives," Zaev said.

Macedonia held snap general elections on Dec. 11, 2016, but no government has been formed yet. The ruling VMRO-DPMNE party secured 51 seats, the SDSM got 49, and the DUI obtained 10 in the 120-seat parliament.

The SDSM and DUI, plus other two smaller ethnic Albanian parties, had secured a majority of 67 votes in parliament.

On the other hand, the President's Cabinet confirmed Thursday that it had received a letter from the Parliament Speaker's Office, which informed Gjorge Ivanov that the process for forming a parliamentary majority and electing a president of the highest legislative body was completed.

Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi has notified President Ivanov that a parliamentary majority has been formed and a Parliament Speaker has been elected, the Parliament Speaker's Office said in another statement. Endit