European monitors say Macedonian vote flawed

European election monitors criticised Macedonia on Monday for failing to prevent irregularities in Sunday's local election, citing cases of stolen ballot papers, ballot stuffing and intimidation. The second-round vote passed without major violence and should clear the way for full implementation of a 2001 peace deal with Albanian rebels, giving the ethnic Albanian minority more local power.
But Julian Peel Yates, head of the 260-strong Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe observer mission, said the vote did not meet OSCE and Council of Europe standards of universal and equal suffrage.
Problems observed in the March 13 first round were repeated in the second round and cast a shadow over the former Yugoslav republic's commitment to free and fair elections as it strives for membership of the European Union, the monitors said.
"In the period between the two rounds the authorities failed adequately to address the shortcomings identified in the first round," Yates said.
"Serious violations were again noted on election day in a number of areas of the country, including some where gross irregularities were observed on March 13," he told a news conference in Skopje.
Keith Whitmore of the Council of Europe said such violations could "undermine the whole process of democracy in Macedonia."
A second round of voting was held on Sunday in 57 of 84 municipalities under a new power-sharing deal designed to give the 25-percent Albanian minority greater local authority.
The elections were hotly contested as parties vied for new local powers over schools, hospitals and economic development.
The deal represents the final pillar of the Ohrid accord, brokered by the West in 2001 to end a seven-month Albanian insurgency. The guerrillas disarmed in exchange for the promise of greater rights for Albanians and later joined government.
But the coalition government, led by Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski, has come under fire for failing to stoke the economy or create jobs for Macedonia's 2.1 million people.
Preliminary results showed the ruling coalition winning in 35 municipalities, but losing to the opposition in 18, including the capital and the cities of Bitola and Prilep in the south.
Analysts said opposition nationalists scored with their hard-line on the decentralisation deal, saying it would cement the ethnic divide and encourage Albanian separatists.
The former rebels, now part of the Democratic Union of Integration, won in 10 municipalities.