SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Macedonia’s center-left opposition has refused to attend a ceremony in parliament to swear in President Gjorge Ivanov for a second five-year term, insisting that the country should hold a new election.
The country’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE party won landslide victories last month in both the general and the presidential elections. The opposition Social Democrats, however, say the ruling party abused its state power during the campaign and have refused to take up their seats in parliament.
An ethnic Albanian minority party, DUI, also decided not to attend Monday’s ceremony, having fallen out with the conservatives over the presidential vote.
In his first action this term, Ivanov is expected to call on conservative leader Nikola Gruevski to form a new government within three weeks.
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