Only 25% turnout in Macedonia election

MACEDONIANS voted yesterday for a successor to president Boris Trajkovski, killed in a plane crash in February, with the incumbent prime minister tipped to win despite his poor economic record.

However, barely one in four registered voters had cast their ballots three hours before polling stations closed, all but ensuring a run-off vote in two weeks. A 50% turnout is required.

With European integration high on the agenda, the nearly 1.7 million voters must decide between four candidates two each from the country's Orthodox Macedonian majority and its Albanian minority.

All four candidates are pro-European. Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski is expected to succeed despite fierce criticism over his failure to bolster the economy and slash the country's 35% jobless rate.

However, none of the candidates are expected to get more than 50% of votes in the first round of polling meaning a run-off vote will be held on April 28.

The top job in the Balkan country, created in 1991 after the dissolution of the former communist Yugoslavia, has been left vacant since the tragic death of Trajkovski at the age of 47, nine months before his mandate was due to expire.

Trajkovski and several of his closest advisors died when his presidential plane plummeted to the ground in thick fog early on February 26, as it was landing in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar.

On March 22, Macedonia formally applied to join the EU, the first step in a process leading to full membership negotiations. The government has pinned its hopes on becoming a member of the EU by 2010.

The strongest opposition to 41-year-old Mr Crvenkovski comes from the other Macedonian candidate, Sasko Kedev, also 41, who has almost no political experience.

"I hope that appeals for a boycott will be ignored and that people will elect their president," Mr Kedev said, referring to calls by small parties for boycott because of the "poor choice" available to them.

Albanians, who make up about a quarter of Macedonia's population of two million, are represented in the ballot by two former members of the ethnic Albanian guerrilla movement the National Liberation Army that fought government forces during a seven-month conflict in 2001.

"By voting, citizens contribute to the country's stabilisation," said 62-year old Gezim Ostreni, the candidate of one of the parties in the ruling coalition, the Democratic Union for Integration.

The other ethnic Albanian contender, Zidi Xhelili, aged 43, of the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians said, "the election should be fair so it can contribute to improving the democratic process in Macedonia."

The vote is being held at a time when the country is moving towards stability, almost three years after the end of the armed conflict between the army and the rebels.

The seven-month uprising ended in August 2001 with an internationally brokered peace accord which gave the ethnic Albanian minority more civil and political rights.

Partial official results of the polls, monitored by international observers, were expected today.