Macedonia's Ruling Party Maintains Support

30 per cent of respondents said that they would support VMRO DPMNE while 12 per cent said they would vote for the largest opposition, the Social Democrats, SDSM. The previous IRI poll showed 32 per cent support for VMRO DPMNE and 11 per cent for SDSM.

The popularity of the Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE head, NIkola Gruevski has also dropped from 27 to 24 per cent while Branko Crvenkovski, the head of SDSM had six and now has nine per cent public support.
 
Eight per cent of the respondents said they would vote for the junior ruling party, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, while the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians would get six per cent, the latest survey shows.

Three per cent of respondents would vote for the New Democracy, ND party, one per cent for the Liberal Democrats, LDP, while less than one perc ent for the United Party for Macedonia.

Three per cent of respondents would vote for other parties, whereas 21 per cent said they were undecided.

According to the IRI poll, EU accession enjoys the support of 94 per cent of respondents, while NATO entry, 91 per cent.

A recent oppinion poll doen by local NGOs shows a slightly greater drop in the popularity of the ruling party.