Macedonia Tries to Vote

Macedonia tried to hold a parliamentary election over the weekend. The operateive word here is tried.

After the dust settled, incumbent Nikola Gruevski and his "Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for National Unity" claimed victory in a 48% - 22% drubbing of the opposition Social Democratic Party.

Unfortunately, violence and vote tampering were the big themes of the day, as international election monitors had to withdraw from at least 30 locations due to gunfire and violence at the polls.

In most countries, voters bring their registration cards to vote. In parts of Macedonia, they bring guns.

As RFE/RL reports, "One man was killed and nine wounded in violence among ethnic Albanians on election day. Gunfire halted voting in one town. Ballot boxes went missing. Two election officials were held briefly by gunmen before being freed unharmed by police."

Meanwhle, British MP Denis McShane --who was on hand to observe this goat rodeo for the Council of Europe -- didn’t have many nice things to say: ”Very clearly, this election needs to be re-run, in whole or in part, under much stricter supervision.”

Next stop: NATO.