Macedonian Albanian Parties Focus on Community Rights

While the junior ruling Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, promises full implementation of the 2001 Ohrid peace accord, which granted special rights to the ethnic Albanian minority, the three other parties go a step further and say it is time for a new deal.

“The three opposition parties have suggested it is time to redefine relations between the Macedonians and Albanians,” says political analyst Sefer Tahiri.

Various opinion polls show that the DUI is likely to snatch a decisive victory in the Albanian bloc in the June 5 general elections in Macedonia.

But unlike at previous polls where only the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, stood in opposition, this time three parties will fight for the runner-up position and the title of strongest ethnic Albanian opposition.

These will be the first general elections for the newly formed New Democracy party of Imer Selmani and the National Democratic Rebirth of Rufi Osmani.

“The difference between the DUI, which sticks to the Ohrid Accord, and the opposition parties is that they all demand some forms of consensual democracy, institutional federalization and a bi-national state,” Tahiri explains.

Albanians make up one quarter of the Macedonian population.

Since Macedonian independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, the unwritten policy has been that the winning Albanian party is invited to help form the government.

Muhamed Zeqiri, editor-in-chief at the national Alsat-M TV, says that the fact that there are more parties in this election means that the ethnic Albanian vote will be split.

“There are too many political parties in the Albanian bloc and at least one will vanish after the elections,” Zeqiri said.

He argues that Osmani’s party will have the hardest time surviving after the elections if it does not secure a position in the next Macedonian government.

“The party was formed only one month before the elections and it has very weak structure. It is natural to expect great disappointment and to see members leave if they fail to enter the government,” he says.

The DUI will most likely have the most MPs after the polls, says Sefer Tahiri.

But unlike Zeqiri, he believes the DPA and Osmani’s National Democratic Rebirth are most likely to secure strong runner-up positions.

He says that Selmani’s New Democracy is likely to have the most difficulty securing votes because of its confusing platform; the party defended the sectarian concept at the 2009 presidential election and now defends a strong ethnic Albanian line, he explained.

The latest opinion polls put the DUI ahead among Albanian parties, with between six and nine per cent confidence among voters. The other parties all have below four percent in the recent surveys.

Ethnic Albanians usually take some 30 seats in the 120 seat parliament.