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One dead and nine wounded in Macedonia polls
Macedonia's parliamentary election was marred by violence in Albanian areas and suspected fraud on Sunday.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:35 June 1, 2008
Skopje: Macedonia's parliamentary election was marred by violence in Albanian areas and suspected fraud on Sunday, with one person shot dead and nine wounded, and voting halted in one town after a gun battle.
The poll is seen as a test of the nation's political maturity after campaign violence raised fears that slow progress toward European Union membership could be further delayed.
Police arrested a former leader of an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group in connection with the violence, a senior government source said.
Irregularities
The country's electoral commission said there were instances of suspected fraud and irregularities such as broken or missing ballot boxes and stolen voting materials.
"I have to express my regret and worry that after the elections in 2006, which were overall evaluated as very good, this year we have bad elections, with a great number of incidents," commission chief Jovan Josifovski said.
Scuffles broke out in several Albanian areas and a small explosive device was thrown at an empty cafe. Near Skopje, voting was stopped in the town of Aracinovo after a gun battle.
Police said officers went to the town after local monitors reported the arrival of men with machine guns. They came under fire and retaliated, killing one gunman and injuring two others.
The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) said the incident was initiated by plain-clothes police.
"They stopped our convoy and shot one round in the air, it was chaos, we got out from the cars and tried to flee," DUI official Shefik Duraku said.
In Skopje's Cair neighbourhood, another shooting took place in the courtyard of a school serving as a polling station. One DUI official was in critical condition and five other people were wounded, police said. At least people have been arrested.
I have to express my regret and worry that after the elections in 2006, which were overall evaluated as very good, this year we have bad elections, with a great number of incidents."
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