Pro-Western Prime Minister wins Macedonia presidency poll

Pro-Western Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski won Macedonia's presidential polls, preliminary results showed on Thursday, but the nationalist opposition alleged fraud and demanded they be annulled.
European observers said Wednesday's election was marred by serious irregularities in parts of the poor and ethnically divided country, including ballot box stuffing. But they said the vote still generally met international standards.
Social Democrats leader Crvenkovski won 62.7 percent of the vote in the run-off to pick a successor to Boris Trajkovski, a peacemaker between the Balkan state's majority Macedonians and minority Albanians who died in a plane crash two months ago.
Conservative Sasko Kedev of the VMRO party got 37.3 percent, the state election commission said.
"The overall picture remains that of a democratic election held under extraordinary circumstances," said Ambassador Friedrich Bauer, head of the 300-strong observer mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
"In certain areas, serious incidents cast a shadow over the election. One of the most serious being a member of parliament entering polling stations and disrupting polling," he said. The outcome looked likely to please Western powers who had feared that voter apathy might end in failure to pick a new head of state and delay crucial political and economic reforms.
Turnout passed the 50 percent minimum of the 1.7 million voters needed for the vote to be valid
"Macedonia will continue on the path aimed at European Union and Nato membership, which is good," said one senior diplomat.
Crvenkovski, 41, has vowed to work for membership of the European Union, which Skopje applied to join last month. He also aims to cement peace after an ethnic Albanian guerrilla insurgency brought Macedonia close to civil war three years ago.
Western officials credit him with strengthening stability and fostering reconciliation with the large ethnic Albanian minority after ousting nationalists in 2002 parliamentary polls. Opponents charge he has failed to tackle deep economic woes, with unemployment at nearly 40 percent, and widespread corruption that deters foreign investors.
The VMRO said major ballot box stuffing took place and that it would not accept the result. It would lodge complaints with the election commission, an official said.