Macedonian's nationalist VMRO-DPMNE led by ex-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has won 51 of 120 seats in parliament in Sunday's election. The opposition Social Democrats won 49 seats in a tightly fought affair. The State Election Commission said the conservative coalition led by Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE (photo) won 38.06 percent of the vote, slightly ahead of the left-leaning coalition, headed by opposition leader Zoran Zaev's Social Democrats, which took 36.69 percent.

The main ethnic Albanian political force - the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) - which has long been junior coalition partner in coalition with the VMRO-DPMNE, came third with 10 seats, giving VMRO-DPMNE a very fragile parliamentary majority. The Macedonian State Election Commission said 67 percent of registered voters participated in Sunday's election, one of the highest turnouts in recent national elections in Macedonia. The elections came almost a year after an EU-brokered deal to end a crisis over a corruption scandal and the illegal wiretapping of tens of thousands of citizens, where Gruevski had to step down.

Read More (BBC)>>
Read More (Deutsche Welle)>>
Read More (Reuters)>>