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OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSQ #0359/01 1541706
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 021706Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY SKOPJE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7395
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE 0327
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUESEN/SKOPJE BETA
RUEHSQ/USDAO SKOPJE MK
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2288
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SKOPJE 000359 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/SCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV NATO MK
SUBJECT: MACEDONIA'S ELECTIONS: RULING PARTY WINS, COUNTRY 
LOSES 
 
REF: SKOPJE 356 
 
SUMMARY 
--------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Macedonia's June 1 snap parliamentary elections 
resulted in an expected victory and absolute majority for the 
ruling VMRO party.  Despite numerous international community 
(IC) and media appeals for free and fair elections in the 
run-up to Election Day (reftel), voting was marred by 
numerous incidents of gross election irregularities, 
including ballot-stuffing, voter intimidation, and violence 
that resulted in one fatality and several injured.  While 
governing coalition partners VMRO and DPA labeled the 
elections "free and fair," opposition SDSM and DUI, and IC 
and local observers condemned the violence and intimidation, 
which included illegal detention of election observers.  PM 
Gruevski has pledged to conduct reruns in all disputed areas, 
to punish all persons responsible for the violence, and to 
delay coalition talks until after free and fair reruns are 
held. End summary. 
 
UNSURPRISING ELECTION RESULTS 
----------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) As expected, governing VMRO won an absolute majority 
of seats in Macedonia's June 1 early parliamentary elections, 
followed by its rival SDSM.  Results for the two biggest 
eAlbanian parties, DUI and DPA, remain uncertain pending DUI 
appeals of the voting in two of the country's six electoral 
districts where there were widespread instances of fraud. 
Two smaller parties --eAlbanian party PDP and Macedonian 
Muslim party PEI-- may succeed in getting one MP seat each. 
With 98% of the ballots counted, the State Electoral 
Committee (SEC) has put overall voter turnout at 57.45% of 
all eligible voters.  Using SEC figures, the following 
parties are expected to enter Parliament: 
 
VMRO -- 64 MP seats (479,219 votes) 
SDSM -- 28 MP seats (231,978 votes) 
DUI -- 14 MP seats (107,230 votes)* 
DPA -- 12 MP seats (100,569 votes)* 
PDP -- 1 MP seat (8,847 votes) 
PEI -- 1 MP seat (7,669 votes) 
 
*likely to change after reruns 
 
ELECTIONS MARRED BY VIOLENCE... 
------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Early on the morning of June 1, in the village of 
Aracinovo near Skopje, police engaged in a firefight with DUI 
activists, resulting in one fatality and at least five 
wounded persons.  While the police claimed they returned fire 
after a group of armed civilians shot at them from a house, 
DUI said the victims were on their way out of a polling 
station (PS) when the police opened fire.  There also were 
reports of an additional casualty, who is in critical 
condition, after a shooting incident near DUI headquarters in 
Cair, a suburb of Skopje. 
 
...INTIMIDATION, AND UNLAWFUL DETENTION 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Mission's election monitoring teams registered 
instances in which people were physically prevented from 
voting and were otherwise intimidated after talking to 
international observers.  Around noon, armed DPA activists in 
the village of Poroj prevented a U.S. observer, her 
teammates, police, and SEC officials from leaving a polling 
station (PS) and threatening them with death if they attempt 
to leave.  The incident occurred when SEC officials, 
accompanied by police, arrived to remove ballot boxes and 
close the polling station because DPA had ejected the 
municipal election board and replaced it entirely with DPA 
personnel.  A DPA MP ended the incident with a negotiated 
"settlement," in which the captives were released if the SEC 
officials agreed to permit the ballot boxes to remain and the 
unaccredited DPA election board to continue to operate the 
PS.  The DPA operatives also confiscated the weapons of the 
police on the scene.  PM Gruevski told the Ambassador he 
 
SKOPJE 00000359  002 OF 003 
 
 
would follow up to ensure prosecution of the perpetrators. 
 
...OTHER IRREGULARITIES 
------------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Signs of numerous election irregularities, 
especially in Electoral District 1 (Skopje area) and Election 
District 6 (northwestern Macedonia), started coming in as 
early as the opening of the polls at 7 a.m. on June 1. 
Irregularities reported included: massive ballot stuffing; 
ballot burning; destroying ballot boxes; use of weapons in 
close proximity to the PS; physical assaults on PS officials; 
and chasing observers out of a PS.  By mid-afternoon, over 60 
PSs had been closed or had suspended operations, and were 
deemed unsafe even for the police.  Local election 
observation NGO MOST reported that 97 of its observers had 
been withdrawn for security reasons, or were prevented from 
doing their jobs in a number of PSs.  In the rest of the 
country, there were reports of sporadic family voting, proxy 
voting, and other incidents, but the overall situation was 
much calmer. 
 
GOVERNING PARTNERS: "A VICTORY FOR MACEDONIA" 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Hours after the polls closed, governing VMRO leader 
Gruevski said the elections were "an enormous victory" for 
the whole country.  He added that there would be reruns in a 
limited number of places to ensure that "each and every MP is 
elected fairly."  In a triumphalist speech, DPA's Thaci added 
that this was DPA's "sweetest victory" and rejected any need 
for reruns.  (Note: Preliminary results point to a DUI 
victory, but Thaci insisted that DPA was the party that 
received more votes.  End note).  Despite independent 
observer assessments that Thaci's party was behind the 
majority of election irregularities throughout the day, Thaci 
blamed rival DUI as the main culprit.  (Note: In a June 2 
meeting with the Ambassador, Gruevski pledged that there will 
be no coalition talks until after reruns are completed in a 
free and fair manner in the next two weeks.  End note) 
 
OPPOSITION: "THE PRICE IN HUMAN LIFE WAS TOO HIGH" 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Opposition SDSM leader Sekerinska congratulated VMRO 
for its victory, but added that the fatality and other 
violent incidents indicated that the conduct of the elections 
had been "unacceptable."  DUI's Ahmeti said that, rather than 
a "day of joy and freedom," Election Day had been "a blood 
bath" orchestrated by DPA.  He added that the results in 
Election District 6 and in the municipality of Saraj in 
Election District 1 were unacceptable because of intimidation 
of observers and electoral officials. 
 
OBSERVERS CONDEMN IRREGULARITIES 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Throughout the day on June 1, the Embassy was in 
touch with all parties, urging them to calm their activists 
and stop the violence.  The Ambassador called the PM and 
urged him to exert pressure over his coalition partner DPA to 
stop the harassment and violence.  Her intervention appeared 
to result in the early afternoon arrest of DPA-affiliated 
crime boss Agim Krasniqi and some of his associates, all of 
them implicated in numerous violent incidents on Election 
Day, on charges of organizing a group to prevent others from 
voting. 
 
¶9. (SBU) On June 2, the OSCE Office for Democratic 
Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) made public its 
preliminary conclusions from the June 1 elections.  Although 
the elections were "well administered procedurally," ODIHR 
assessed that Macedonia had failed to meet "key OSCE and 
Council of Europe commitments" due to "a failure to prevent 
violent acts" and "the limited and selective enforcement of 
laws."  ODIHR concluded that the overall assessment of the 
June 1 elections "will depend on whether the authorities will 
thoroughly investigate these serious violations." 
 
¶10. (U) Earlier the same day, the local election monitoring 
NGO MOST said that "isolated but serious" incidents had 
 
SKOPJE 00000359  003 OF 003 
 
 
tarnished the integrity of the elections in certain areas of 
the country.  Only the SEC's readiness for quick and 
efficient reruns in a wide range of "problematic places," 
according to MOST, would improve the overall situation after 
the elections. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) These elections represent a significant setback for 
Macedonia's democratic development, and for its NATO 
membership prospects.  We, the EU, OSCE, and ODIHR have given 
the GOM room to repair the damage, however, if the government 
ensures free, fair and peaceful reruns.  Gruevski has pledged 
to do that, and we will do our utmost to ensure he follows 
through on his commitment and returns Macedonia to the 
positive course it was on before he made the fateful decision 
to call the early elections. 
Milovanovic