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RR RUEHAG RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSQ #0294/01 0901404
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 311404Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY SKOPJE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4455
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/CDR TF FALCON
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUESEN/SKOPJE BETA
RUEHSQ/USDAO SKOPJE MK
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SKOPJE 000294 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/SCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV MK
SUBJECT: MACEDONIA: CAMPAIGN RHETORIC HEATS UP AS SUMMER 
PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS APPROACH 
 
REF: A. SKOPJE 286 
     ¶B. SKOPJE 266 
 
SUMMARY 
 
¶1. (SBU) With parliamentary elections possible as soon as 
late June, political parties are fueling increasingly heated 
pre-campaign rhetoric with personal attacks and mudslinging. 
Although the parties publicly deny it, there are numerous 
behind-the-scenes discussions ongoing about possible 
post-election coalition arrangements.  A draft electoral code 
was finally passed on March 29, the first step toward setting 
an election date.  Skirmishing between governing SDSM and 
opposition VMRO-DPMNE over key provisions of the code had 
delayed passage of the law for several weeks. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Recent polls indicate that no party will win a 
dominant share of Parliament seats, raising the possibility 
of unpredictable post-election coalition negotiations and a 
realignment of the parties.  Ethnic Albanian junior coalition 
party DUI, however, will likely emerge from the elections 
with considerable leverage.  End Summary. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS POSSIBLE IN LATE JUNE OR EARLY JULY 
 
¶3. (SBU) Macedonia must hold parliamentary elections on or 
before October 3, with parties vying for 120 seats in the 
country's unicameral parliament.  Voters will cast ballots in 
six electoral districts with 20 seats each.  Each district is 
comprised of approximately 280,000 voters.  PM Buckovski 
recently told the Ambassador he hopes to hold elections in 
late June or, at the latest, July 5, before Macedonians head 
off on summer vacation and before the World Cup Championship 
soccer match is broadcast later that week. 
 
CAMPAIGN RHETORIC HEATS UP 
 
¶4. (SBU) Although the election date still has not been 
officially announced (the President of Parliament must 
formally announce the date at least 70 days before election 
day), the parties already have raised the temperature of the 
political campaign.  Governing SDSM has bashed Nikola 
Gruevski, leader of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, for allegedly 
questionable real estate transactions he made while he was in 
government from 1998-2002.  Gruevski has counter-punched with 
accusations that PM Buckovski profited from equally dubious 
real estate deals concluded when he was Minister of Defense 
from 2002-2004.  The parties also traded blows over the 
recent privatization of the distribution assets of state 
power utility ESM (ref A), with VMRO-DPMNE apparently behind 
street blockades organized to protest the deal, and SDSM 
questioning VMRO-DPMNE's free market credentials for opposing 
the privatization. 
 
¶5. (U) The ethnic Albanian parties have jumped into the fray 
with equal ardor.  Opposition DPA has hammered governing 
coalition junior partner DUI for failing to achieve any 
measurable progress in implementing the 2001 Ohrid Framework 
Agreement.  DPA also accuses DUI of failing to secure 
government benefits for ethnic Albanian National Liberation 
Army (NLA) fighters and their families who suffered damages 
as a result of the 2001 conflict.  Both DPA and the smaller 
ethnic Albanian opposition party PDP also criticized DUI for 
failing to publicly denounce a recent police action in the 
predominantly ethnic Albanian village of Kondovo in which one 
eAlbanian criminal suspect was killed (ref B). 
 
ETHNIC ALBANIAN FRONT-RUNNER FOCUSES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 
 
¶6. (U) DUI, the eAlbanian front-runner with a 3-to-1 lead 
over DPA in current polls, is vowing to stick to the issues 
in its campaign platform, and to focus on economic 
development as one of its main themes.  With the party's 
strong lead in the polls, DUI leaders are confident they can 
win up to 20 seats in the elections; that would be a gain of 
five seats since the last parliamentary elections in 2002. 
The party has backed off previous demands that the governing 
coalition reach a compromise solution before the elections on 
a language law, or on a law to provide benefits to 2001 NLA 
 
SKOPJE 00000294  002 OF 003 
 
 
veterans and their families.  DUI leaders acknowledge that 
their SDSM partners could not now support such legislation 
without alienating ethnic Macedonian supporters. 
 
COALITION MINUET 
 
¶7. (SBU) Although the parties publicly deny engaging in any 
pre-electoral coalition arrangements, it is an open secret 
here that SDSM has been courting DPA as an alternative 
post-electoral coalition partner, and that DUI, in turn, has 
been flirting with VMRO-DPMNE.  DPMNE accuses VMRO-Narodna, 
its archrival on the eMacedonian right, of being in bed with 
SDSM, while DUI privately has told us they suspect SDSM is 
trying to pre-position a "minority government" that would 
exclude them. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Former SDSM maverick Tito Petkovski, who now 
controls three former SDSM MP seats following his breakaway 
founding of the NSDP last year, remains a chaste dance 
partner.  Petkovski refuses to speculate on a pre-election 
coalition agreement, but is likely in the end to leverage his 
strong support among disenchanted SDSM voters (if elections 
were held today, he would garner nearly five percent of the 
votes, compared to SDSM's nine percent) in a post-election 
coalition arrangement with Buckovski's Social Democrats. 
 
 
ELECTORAL CODE RUMBLE 
 
¶9. (U) Parliament finally took the first step in the election 
process, after weeks of acrimonious debate, by passing a new 
electoral code on March 29.  Until recently, VMRO-DPMNE had 
engaged in a pitched battle with SDSM over provisions in the 
code governing the composition of the local electoral boards 
that administer polling stations.  PM Buckovski finally 
brokered a compromise with VMRO-DPMNE on the composition of 
the boards, and the code was approved with the support of all 
parties except VMRO-Narodna, which walked out of Parliament 
before the vote, charging PM Buckovski with reneging on an 
earlier agreement with Narodna. 
 
POLLS SHOW A STRENGTHENED OPPOSITION 
 
¶10. (SBU) A March 22 poll shows more than 13 percent of 
voters would cast ballots for VMRO-DPMNE in parliamentary 
elections, 9 percent would vote for SDSM, and only two 
percent would support VMRO-Narodna.  Among eAlbanians, DUI 
would garner over 10 percent, with DPA lagging at four 
percent.  Pollsters tell us that the poll's margin of error 
is large enough that the gap could be far smaller.  They also 
caution that percentages translate only imperfectly into 
seats in Parliament.  Most analysts predict a close race, at 
least in terms of seats.  Nevertheless, if these results are 
reflected in the balloting this summer, VMRO-DPMNE could 
attempt to form a governing coalition with DPA and several 
smaller parties.  DUI leader Ali Ahmeti has told us privately 
that he will insist that any coalition government include the 
eAlbanian party with the largest number of MP seats. 
 
¶11. (U) At this stage, more than 45 percent of respondents 
still say they will not vote, or are undecided about the 
party they would support.  Overall, the poll indicates voter 
turnout is unlikely to top 60 percent, not much different 
from previous elections; that would favor the opposition 
parties since they are more likely to be able to mobilize 
undecided voters and voters unhappy with the current 
government. 
 
PRESIDENT TAKES THE MORAL HIGH GROUND 
 
¶12. (U) Rising above the fray, President Crvenkovski has used 
his office to launch an initiative to press for free and fair 
elections as a prerequisite for Macedonia's Euro-Atlantic 
aspirations.  Together with the Ambassador, accompanied by 
the EUSR and OSCE ambassador, Crvenkovski has held a series 
of public and private meetings and roundtables with the 
media, NGOs, and religious leaders, calling on all of them to 
play a constructive, responsible role in ensuring free and 
fair elections.  Although A1 TV and the daily Vreme (both 
 
SKOPJE 00000294  003 OF 003 
 
 
owned by Velija Ramkovski, who recently settled his USD 1.8m 
debt to a U.S. foundation) have sharply criticized him for 
involving the so-called "international factor" in this 
process, Macedonian political analysts tell us they believe 
the IC's engagement in this endeavor is critical. 
 
COMMENT 
 
¶13. (SBU) A pattern of political behavior is emerging from 
the Byzantine maneuvers of the parties in the "pre-campaign" 
period.  The opposition has seemed intent on creating and 
fueling an atmosphere of tension and incipient crisis in 
order to keep the pool of frustrated and undecided voters 
filled.  At the same time, the government has kept the 
opposition off-balance by offering concessions to demonstrate 
publicly its flexibility, and then amending them later so 
that the opposition rejects them, ends up looking obdurate, 
and fights publicly among themselves.  Buckovski so far has 
proved to be the master of such maneuvers, outfoxing the 
opposition at every turn.  That approach may work to his 
tactical advantage now, but over the long run it can only 
help feed public dissatisfaction with the entire political 
establishment.  Meanwhile, with the media and opposition 
determined to focus on the negative, even a more positive 
Buckovski approach might well be futile. 
MILOVANOVIC