Skopje – Macedonia’s governing conservatives VMRO-DPMNE are slightly ahead as votes are counted from Sunday’s general election.
With more than half the ballot counted, the VMRO-DPMNE had 39% of the vote with the SDSM social democrats on 36%.
Supporters of both parties have taken to the streets claiming victory.
There were no exit polls for Sunday’s election, which was called two years early as part of a Western-brokered agreement to end a paralysing political crisis.
Vlatko Gjorcev, a senior official in Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s party, told supporters at the group’s headquarters: “We won once again. Tonight, today on December 11, the tenth victory in a row.”
Meanwhile SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, quoted by AFP news agency, told a cheering crowd. “We are the winners!”
Source: BBC 2016