SKOPJE (AFP) ? Macedonians came out in droves to voting in snap polls Sunday hoping to fight their leadership to concentrate on overcoming the economical crisis and clear the name-row with Greece that is blocking EU entry.
Two hours earlier the polls were due to end at 7 pm (1700 GMT), the output was 53.86 percent of about 1.8 million eligible voters, according to Boris Kondarko, the president of the state electoral commission.
He said that only minor irregularities had been reported and were dealt with immediately.
The turnout figure were significantly higher - more than 8 percent - compared to previous elections in 2008, won by incumbent Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his 24-party rightist coalition VMRO-DPMNE.
Gruevski, seeking his 3rd term as prime minister, said he expected his company to win the polls.
"I remember the reforms in Macedonia will triumph," Gruevski said after the vote.
Its primary competition in the rush to take the 123-seat parliament is the leftist-led SDSM of Branko Crvenkovski, which walked out of the parliament in January after the government froze the bank accounts of the pro-opposition A1 television station during a tax probe of their owner.
Crvenkovski said a triumph for his company would institute "changes and new perspectives for all citizens of Macedonia."
The latest surveys gave the VMRO-DPMNE the lead, but many think it will come short of taking a majority.
Gruevski has sworn to continue reforms essential to fix the landlocked Balkan state to link the European Union and NATO.
The opposite has accused him of corruption, rigid mastery of the media and inadequate investment in the country.
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Although Skopje officially became a nominee for EU membership in 2005, hopes of connection the north have been blocked by a 19-year-old name conflict with Greece.
Greece has a northern province called Macedonia and says the use of the like name by its neighbour implies a call on Greek territory.
Macedonia filed an application with the International Court of Justice in 2008, claiming Greece was violating its rights by blocking its NATO membership pending the solution of the name dispute.
Hearings before the ICJ were held in March, and the judges are expected to give their ruling later this year.
Both the regime and the opponent largely avoided the matter during the campaign, pledging only that any proposed name change would be tried in a referendum.
Student Tine Jakupovski said he was enraged by the politicians` "empty words on Europe and integration, while everyone knows there will be no EU until the correspondence with Greece is reached."
He was one of many Macedonians disappointed with the sluggish rate of economic reforms and disillusioned by continuous political bickering.
Anita Petrusevska, a 33-year-old unemployed engineer, said that "neither the authorities nor the opponent offers anything new."
Macedonians have an average wage of some 350 euros (500 dollars) a month and about one-third of the potential workforce is unemployed.
The country`s ethnic Albanians, who build up one fourth of the two-million-strong population, will likely emerge as kingmaker in the constitution of the next government.
They assert that connection the EU bloc will help ensure there is no repetition of the inter-ethnic conflict that shook the area a decade ago.
Voting was monitored by about 3,500 local and 330 international observers.
Preliminary results are expected early Monday.
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