International officials in Macedonia and independent analysts assess that the peaceful and fair organisation of the elections are one of the basic requirements which Skopje must meet on its path towards Euro-Atlantic institutions.
According to some estimates the pre-election campaign was marked by 30 armed incidents in which two people were injured. A majority of those incidents happened between two leading parties representing ethnic Albanians.
A total of 38 political parties will run in the polls. Most of them have formed coalitions either with the ruling parties Social Democratic Alliance (of Macedonians) and the (Albanian) Democratic Union for Integration, or with the opposition VMRO-DPMNE and the Democratic Party of (ethnic) Albanians.
According to opinion polls conducted last week, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE seems to be the favourite party for 17.3 percent of the respondents. The ruling Social Democratic Alliance would be able to muster 12.8 percent of votes according to the surveys. Over nine percent (9.6) percent of the respondents were in favour of the (Albanian) Democratic Union for Integration, while 5.8 percent said they would vote for the Democratic Party of (ethnic) Albanians.