Macedonia: great undecided

Macedonia will be the ultimate loser if parliamentary elections on Sunday are not fair and democratic.

The country hopes to get an invitation from the June EU summit to start accession talks. Violence during the elections -- there have already been attacks on party premises and intimidation of and physical assaults on party workers in Albanian-minority areas -- would derail this.

The most recent public opinion surveys show For a Better Macedonia, a coalition put together by the outgoing government, ahead with 31% support. The corresponding opposition coalition has 11%. Yet some 41% of the electorate have no preference for any candidate in particular, have not decided, or are not saying.

The high proportion of uncommitted voters leaves the elections wide open. However, local pundits predict Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, whom polls make far the most popular politician, returning to power with roughly the same majority. The elections will then have settled nothing.

They were called in the aftermath of the blocking by Greece of Macedonia's NATO membership at the alliance's April summit. Gruevski has been as nationalistically intransigent on the 'name' issue with Greece during the election campaign as before. Albanian thuggery and a continued Macedonian hard line with Athens will delay Euro-Atlantic integration.