Newspaper Article

Election Takes Macedonia Another Step Toward Democracy

Gall, Carlotta

1999

Overview

President Kiro Gligorov, 82, who steered Macedonia to independence from Belgrade in 1991, avoided bloodshed and kept his fragile state together despite its volatile mix of Slavs and Albanians and its historic frictions with neighbors, will leave office this week. ''The important thing is that there is no vacuum of power without a president, and that a new president is elected democratically,'' Mr. Gligorov told reporters after casting his ballot. Badly scarred in an assassination attempt four years ago, President Gligorov has played an increasingly distant role in the last few years. Several hours after polling stations closed, Mr. Trajkovski's party claimed victory, but Mr. [Tito] Petkovski's camp did not accept defeat. The final count was expected overnight. The votes of Macedonia's sizable Albanian minority -- between a quarter and a third of the total population -- were expected to play an important role in a vote overshadowed by calls for a boycott from some first-round losers. Mr. Trajkovski, unusually a Methodist member of the heavily Orthodox Slav majority, was expected to attract most of the Albanian vote.

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: Democracy / Election results / Elections / Gligorov, Kiro / Macedonia-The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia / Petkovski, Tito / Trajkovski, Boris