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LOCAL PRESS

 

Mitrovica will not be led by an Albanian (Novosti)

Despite the tense atmosphere over the past weeks, there is optimism in both Serb civic initiatives that Mitrovica will be led by a Serb after 23 February. The leader of the Serbian (Srpska) Civic Initiative Vladeta Kostic claims for Novosti that they will not conduct a negative campaign. “Without getting into the story as to who is guilty, we think that Oliver Ivanovic’s arrest and other detentions were not the right political moment because this will influence voter turnout. Nonetheless, we are certain that the people in the north are wise and that they will preserve their town with a pencil. I don’t believe that an Albanian candidate will lead the town. The SDP Civic Initiative will conduct a very unusual struggle for the votes, even though their candidate Ivanovic will not able to address them directly. This party’s deputy president Ksenija Bozovic says that the only communication they have with the detained leader is through the lawyer. “Just as during the November elections, we will deal with utility topics in the campaign, but we will also add the security aspect over the newly created situation,” said Bozovic. Kostic expects Belgrade officials to join the mayoral elections more actively: “We were never hiding our connection with the Serbian Government, so we want the ministers to join the campaign.”

 

Serbs fear new arrests in northern Kosovo and Metohija (Danas)

Even though the EULEX headquarters in Pristina claim there are no secret indictments and lists, the arrest of the SDP leader and the mayoral candidate for northern Mitrovica Oliver Ivanovic and the retired Serbian Interior Ministry’s colonel and former police commaner in this town Dragoljub Delibasic has brought suspicion that this is the beginning of a “clash” with the former “guardians of the bridge on the Ibar River” who prevented Albanian intrusion into the Serb part of the town during the armed conflict in Kosovo and Metohija. We asked Momir Stojanovic, the SNS official and retired general of the army of Serbia and Montenegro, whether he expects that he will be arrested: “Such searching into the past will take us nowhere, while eventual new arrests will only additionally complicate the situation.” He claims that Ivanovic’s case has a political background, because at issue is an attempt of the “provisional institutions in Pristina to prevent his election as a mayor, which could also be an introduction into Ivanovic’s appointment to the post of the president of the future Union of Serb Municipalities.” “Ivanovic is a serious candidate for the president of the Union, and with his detention its formation is prevented. The arguments for his arrest are very suspicious. On the other hand, apart from Ivanovic and Delibasic, there is a group of Serbs who are registered as people who prevented in 1999 and 2000 the attempt of the Albanianization of the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica either by guarding the bridge on the Ibar River or by preventing the departure of the Serb population. We should expect in the coming period Pristina to ensure, through influential international circles, the processing of all those who worked on the protection of Serbs in northern Kosovo,” says Stojanovic. He avoided answering whether “new information in the investigation based on which Ivanovic and Delibasic had been arrested” could be the result of cooperation whereby EULEX and the Serbian Interior Ministry signed an agreement in 2009. According to him, “the situation in Kosovo and Metohija is such that someone may be declared guilty easily regardless of objective guilt.” “It is frivolous that they waited 14 years with evidence and that people are arrested on the eve of elections. Belgrade should react and prevent an eventual chain of arrests,” stresses Momir Stojanovic. EULEX spokeswoman Irina Gudeljevic told Danas that EULEX “cooperates very well with relevant prosecutors in Belgrade, but that she can’t say anything more when it comes to individual cases, especially when the investigation is underway.” Asked whether EULEX would request, based on the agreement with the Serbian Interior Ministry, Belgrade to extradite Kosovo Serbs who would be on the territory of Serbia proper at the moment of eventual arrest, Gudeljevic says that EULEX “never announced arrests nor does it deal with speculations on the future.”

 

Taxes limit exchange of goods with Kosovo (RTS)

With the introduction of customs for goods from Serbia, the Kosovo government has been violating the CEFTA agreement for some time now. Duties, insurances and various taxes are drastically making products sold in Kosovo more expensive, so some producers are forced to withdraw from the Kosovo market. Everything that we used to sell in the Serbian southern province, we are now officially exporting, because exchange with Kosovo and Metohija was established a year ago as with any other country, after the abolishment of the embargo for goods from Serbia. The invoices accompanying goods, next to the Serbian customs stamp, now carry the Kosovo stamp instead of UNMIK’s stamp. “There are many problems, starting with the fact that they don’t accept our invoices anymore, but they themselves determine the value of these invoices, thus the basis for duty payment,” says Vladan Stanojevic from the Nis Regional Chamber of Commerce. Due to high taxes, some producers are reducing production even though they have been selling goods in Kosovo and Metohija for years. The brickyard near Prokuplje plans to close down and to sack 220 employees if the problem is not resolved soon. “It is necessary to exert influence on the international community to influence the Kosovo institutions to abolish this administrative barrier,” says Miroljub Ristic, deputy president of the Mladost Company from Nis. Albanian merchants who import goods from Serbia are also dissatisfied with the Kosovo government decisions. “Now they introduced a 100-Euro-tax that influences the price of groceries. On the other hand, I need to pay analyses for the goods. Perhaps this is normal for someone, but this costs us also time since I have to wait two-three days for every item,” says Kujtim Sahic, a merchant from Gnjilane. “Three years ago, we exported products worth $370 million to the southern Serbian province, and we imported products worth $3 million. Imports quadrupled in 2012. Imports were worth half a billion Dollars last year,” says Sahic. About 60 trucks with goods cross the Merdare administrative crossing every day. There is twice as much in the summer. More than 12,000 tows crossed the Merdare crossing last year.

 

Paunovic on human and minority rights (Danas)

At all meetings, representatives on the National Council of the Albanian national minority mostly point to problems that refer to the official use of the Albanian language and script, lack of high-school textbooks, non-respect of the recommendations of the National Council for administration members in schools where teaching is conducted in Albanian and deficit of financies for the work of the National Council, the Head of the Office for Human and Minority Rights Suazana Paunovic tells Danas. “All national minorities have welcomed open and continuous dialogue. Office representatives have visited all national councils at their headquarters, from Bujanovac to Subotica. In order to understand the need for dialogue and cooperation with the Albanian community in resolving specific problems, we have one civil servant employed in Bujanovac. This way we have direct insight into problems and events in southern Serbia,” she says. Paunovic gives as a good example her recent visit to Bujanovac, where she talked with the President of the National Council of the Albanian national minority Galip Beciri about improving cooperation, and took part in the debate “Serbia on the road towards the EU” organized by the Coordination Body for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, and the EU Delegation. “We talked with Bujanovac residents about standards that need to be achieved in the protection of human and minority rights during the EU membership negotiations, as well as about what the experiences of other countries demonstrated when it comes to the importance of EU integration improving the protection of human and minority rights. The residents were mostly interested in specific projects that are aimed at economic development of southern Serbia, possibilities for sportsmen and students from southern Serbia to apply for scholarships in EU countries and influence of the accession negotiations on improving the position of national minorities,” she says. The OSCE High Commissioner Astrid Tors has recently visited the eastern and southern parts of Serbia towards seeing the position of the Vlach, Romanian and Albanian national minorities. “Tors praised Serbia for progress reached in the domain of education over the past period and suggested that it is necessary to have teaching in minority languages everywhere where there is a sufficient number of interested students,” said Paunovic.

 

Will elections influence Serbia-EU negotiations? (Danas)

Serbia’s EU integration, i.e. the negotiating process with the EU on accession, will not suffer over the elections, state Serbian officials in charge of this job. However, the question is raised how the screenings of certain negotiating chapters will unfold and who will attend them after 16 March, i.e. in the course of the formation of the new government, when there is a possibility of working group members being changed. Danas tried to receive from the Office for European Integration a schedule of screenings for this year, but we were told that the screening plan can’t be available for the public, because it has a framework character and it is possible that some dates will be changed in agreement with the European Commission.” Outgoing Minister without Portfolio in charge of European Integration Branko Ruzic tells Danas that the dynamics of screenings has been clearly determined. “Members of the negotiating groups from the ministries are people who have also negotiated the Stabilization and Association Agreement and they are not changed with the change of government. State secretaries who are the heads of these groups are subject to change, but despite this, nothing essentially will be changed during the process of government formation and its establishment,” says Ruzic.  Asked by Danas how the screenings will proceed after 16 March, the Head of the Serbian negotiating team with the EU Tanja Miscevic, says that we will have 50 meetings this year and that nothing has changed in the schedule or readiness of the Serbian team after the slating of elections.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Popovic: Not a single problem resolved in Montenegro (Srna)

The leader of the non-parliamentary People’s Party Predrag Popovic has assessed that not one essential problem of the Serbs in Montenegro has been resolved, adding that Serb representatives in the parliament had done a poor job in protecting Serb national interests. “Those who received the mandate from citizens think they can resolve this by constantly being in the opposition. Serbs shouldn’t have allowed themselves for someone to push them into a ghetto. It is very bad that they see the Serbs as the opposition in Montenegro, and not as the authorities,” says Popovic. He says that the SDP is the biggest cause of problems of the Serbs. “The SDP has always blackmailed the DPS not to resolve some problems of the Serbs,” he said. Popovic thinks that Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic called on Serb parties to form the government because the Serbs occupy a very important position in the DPS voting structure. Popovic says that the DPS is much more acceptable to the Serbs than the SDP, and that he doesn’t understand how Serb parties in the parliament can be closer to Ranko Krivokapic’s party. He adds that “undoubtedly there is an end to Montenegro’s state and legal status” and that Montenegro is the parent state of the Montenegrin Serbs.

 

Oric: I was a knight on the battlefield; I do not fear the truth and trial (Klix.ba)

Former Srebrenica war commander Naser Oric has confirmed the claims of the Serbian Deputy Prosecutor for War Crimes Bruno Vekaric that he was visiting Serbia, but that he thinks this not controversial since he is a “free citizen” acquitted by the ICTY for war crimes against the Serbs.

“I was a knight on the battlefield and I don’t see any reason for not going to Serbia. As you see, that plan of arresting me in Serbia has been baffled. When they need B&H, they say it is theirs, but when they don’t need it, then the parent state is Serbia. The Milovanovic case confirms this. Until yesterday, Oric was to be extradited to Serbia, and now they state that Milovanovic is a B&H citizen, and not the Republika Srpska citizen. They are aware that the RS is not a recognized state… look at what they’ve come down to, it is miserable,” said Oric.

 

 

Oric told to get away? (Danas)

Former Bosniak war commander Naser Oric has had private and business contacts in Serbia and this is why he often visited its territory until he learned through his sources that an investigation had been launched against him, Danas was told by security circles regarding his unsuccessful arrest. Some interlocutors opine that Oric was involved in private security business deals since he worked as a special policeman in the Serbian Interior Ministry before the war in B&H. In an interview to Kurir last year, he denied that he was a personal bodyguard of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic. However, he confirmed that he was in the police team that suppressed Albanian demonstrations in Kosovo. He also took part in protecting Milosevic in Gazimestan in 1988, as well as in the arrest of the Serbian Renewal Movement leader Vuk Draskovic on 9 March 1991. Oric also allowed the publication of his black-and-white photo in the Serbian militia uniform.

 

Hope in the Bosnian spring (Klix.ba)

Around 4,000 Tuzla residents demonstrated in front of the government building of the Tuzla Canton, and about 20 policemen and 50 civilians were injured when police used tear gas. The protests were organized by the workers of five ruined industrial companies and discontent citizens. The protests also erupted in Sarajevo, where citizens threw eggs and stones on the cantonal government building. Several citizens were arrested and four policemen requested medical help. Eggs were also flying towards the building of the Una-Sana Canton in Bihac, in front of which several hundreds of citizens gathered spontaneously. One group of people tried to enter the building. Around 150 Zenica residents protested in front of the building of the Zenica-Doboj Canton for several hours. “This is the struggle for Tuzla today, but tomorrow it will be for all of us,” the protest in Zenica sent a message. Professor at the Sarajevo Law Faculty Zdravko Grebo says he hopes this is the beginning of the “Bosnian spring.” He says the protests lack coordination and an articulated goal “at a large, important, state level…” “We lack someone who is ready to assume leadership and responsibility. But, this is the beginning of the awakening of, so to say, class consciousness. What is not quite encouraging is the poor response in Banja Luka, Zenica, Mostar, especially in Sarajevo. At least as support… There are no organized groups here. I think something important needs to occur in the next two-three months,” said Grebo.

 

Name issue is not major obstacle before FRYOM’s EU accession (Utrinski Vesnik)

Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Evangelos Venizelos distanced Greece from the possible reasons for Macedonia not to start the EU accession talks, writes Utrinski Vesnik. During a debate at the European Parliament (EP) the Greek Minister tried to convince the MEPs to give up on the stereotype that the name issue is the only engine that would bring FRYOM closer to the EU. “Even if we imagine that the name issue is solved tomorrow, this will not mean that all problems concerning the membership have been suddenly solved,” Evangelos Venizelos said.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Kosovo Serb Policeman Denies Bus Station Beatings (BIRN, by Edona Peci, 7 February 2014)

Former Serbian reservist policeman Ivan Radivojevic told a court in Pristina that he didn’t assault a group of Kosovo Albanian civilians during the late 1990s conflict.

Radivojevic, who is accused of being one of a group of Serbian fighters who assaulted around 40 male Albanian civilians at the bus station in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje in March 1999, told the court on Thursday that he was not in the town on the day that the alleged war crime was committed.

“I wasn’t in Kosovo Polje on March 26, 1999, because one day before I was sent to the field and came back some 15 days later,” he said.

According to the indictment, some of the victims of the assault were then kidnapped and killed.

“Some of the men who were beaten were ordered by the paramilitaries to get to an armoured vehicle and were driven to an unknown direction. The abducted Albanians were later found dead,” the indictment says.

Several witnesses who testified at Radivojevic’s trial have claimed that he was among the fighters who assaulted their relatives, and said they could identify the former reservist policeman because he used to be their neighbour.

But Radivojevic denied this.

“I don’t know these people and I’ve never been in touch with them,” he said.

“I have a strong suspicion that all this was initiated by the person who occupied my house,” he said, referring to a Kosovo Albanian who bought his parents’ house after the war but has not paid the family all it was owed for the property.

Radivojevic, now a 45-year-old taxi driver who lives in the Serbian town of Blace, was arrested in July last year at the border with Kosovo.

 

Italy's Kosovo embassy embroiled in organized crime sweep (Reuters, by Fatos Bytyci, 5 Feberuary 2014)

PRISTINA - The son of the late leader of Kosovo's fight for independence, Ibrahim Rugova, was among 10 people arrested on Wednesday by European Union police on suspicion of organized crime involving the Italian embassy.

The EU's law and order mission in the young Balkan state said charges included organized crime, trading in influence and fraud against Italy's diplomatic mission in the capital, Pristina.

Local media reports said the group was suspected of selling coveted Schengen visas issued by the embassy.

Speaking to Reuters, Italian ambassador Andreas Ferrarese declined to confirm or deny media reports that local embassy staff were among those arrested.

"I cannot enter into details because there is a problem of privacy and also a problem to protect the investigation," he said, speaking in English.

He said the embassy was working to clarify the situation and was cooperating with the EU police and justice mission EULEX, in which it had full confidence.

Wearing black masks, EU police raided the home of Uke Rugova, formerly the residence of late Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova until his death in 2006. Uke Rugova is now a member of the Kosovo parliament as part of the governing coalition.

"Early this morning, an international prosecutor ... conducted an arrest and search operation against 10 defendants allegedly involved in an organized criminal group suspected of committing various offences," the EU mission said in a statement.

It named Uke Rugova as one of those arrested. It had no immediate comment about reports concerning the Schengen visas.

Rugova's lawyer Bajram Tmava told Reuters: "I have visited him at the detention center and he absolutely denies any wrongdoing."

His father led the Kosovo Albanian struggle for freedom from Serbia through the 1990s, before his pacifist approach was eclipsed by a guerrilla insurgency. NATO bombed in 1999 to halt a wave of ethnic cleansing by Serbian forces and Kosovo declared independence in 2008.

A landlocked and impoverished country of 1.7 million people, Kosovo is the only country in the Western Balkans to still require visas to enter Europe's borderless Schengen zone.

For many, a Schengen visa opens the door to a possible longer-term stay inside the EU and eventually the chance to work and send money home.

 

 

Bosnian anti-corruption protests spread to Sarajevo (DW/Reuters/AP, 7 February 2014)

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across Bosnia. They are demonstrating in support of laid off workers in the northern town of Tuzla.

After outlasting a volley of tear gas by police reinforced with special dog units on Thursday, protesters surrounded an empty government building in the city of Tuzla - northern Bosnia's former industrial heart - and set tires and trash on fire.

The protests, which began Tuesday, have come in response to an ongoing dispute involving four former state-owned companies that filed for bankruptcy shortly after privatization, leaving scores jobless.

The leader of the Tuzla region, Sead Causevic, told Bosnian state TV that the "rip-off privatization" had already taken place when his government took power and called the workers' demands legitimate.

The four former state-owned companies, which included furniture and washing powder factories, employed most of the population of Tuzla. Contracts had obliged their new owners after privatization to invest in the companies and make them profitable.

The new owners sold the assets, stopped paying workers and filed for bankruptcy between 2000 and 2008. Causevic blamed the courts for obstructing justice, saying the workers had turned to the law years ago, but no judgment had ever come.

Eggs versus gas

The demonstrations have reached Zenica, Mostar, Bihac and the capital, Sarajevo. Protests in the capital saw hundreds of demonstrators, some of whom threw eggs at the local government building.

On Thursday, more than a dozen people sought medical help in Tuzla, mostly from the effects of the tear gas police had used. Residents of buildings yelled insults and threw buckets of water at the officers who passed by in full riot gear. Elderly neighbors banged cooking pots on their windows and balconies.

Bosnia has the highest unemployment rate in the Balkans at roughly 40 percent officially Privatization that followed the end of communism and the 1992-95 war produced a handful of tycoons, but almost wiped out the middle class and sent many workers into poverty.

 

Bosnia protests spread to other cities as widespread discontent rages in election year (AP, 6 February 2014)

TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina – Violent protests by thousands of unpaid workers in a northern Bosnian city spread to other parts of the country Thursday and have morphed into widespread discontent in an election year about unemployment and rampant corruption.

Police used tear gas to temporarily disperse the protesters in Tuzla who threw stones at a local government building. The protesters returned after the tear gas volley, surrounded the empty government building and set tires and trash on fire. Police were reinforced with special dog units.

More than two dozen people sought medical help, mostly from the effects of the tear gas. The majority of those injured were police officers, including one who was hospitalized with a chest injury from a thrown object.

A police spokesman initially said the officer was fighting for his life, but a hospital later said his injuries were no longer life-threatening.

The demonstrations, which began Tuesday in Tuzla, have reached Sarajevo, Zenica, Mostar and Bihac. The protests in Tuzla are about an ongoing dispute involving four former state-owned companies that were privatized and later filed for bankruptcy.

Thousands gathered in the four other cities in solidarity with the Tuzla workers, but also to express their own dissatisfaction with a nearly 40-percent unemployment rate and politicians whom they accuse of being disconnected from citizens' needs.

The protesters in Sarajevo threw eggs at the local government building.

One of them, Nihad Alickovic, called for more citizens to join the protest.

"Take your problems out on the street," he urged.

Residents of buildings in Tuzla yelled insults and threw buckets of water at the officers who passed by in full riot gear. Elderly neighbors were seen banging cooking pots on their windows and balconies.

The four former state-owned companies, which included furniture and washing powder factories, employed most of the population of Tuzla. After they were privatized, contracts obliged them to invest in them and make them profitable. But the owners sold the assets, stopped paying workers and filed for bankruptcy between 2000 and 2008.

The leader of the Tuzla region, Sead Causevic, told Bosnian state TV that the "rip-off privatization" was already concluded when his government took power and that the workers' demands are legitimate. He blamed the courts for obstructing justice, saying the workers have turned to them years ago, but no judgment has ever been passed.

Bosnians have many reasons to be unhappy as general elections approach in October. Besides the unemployment rate, the privatization that followed the end of communism and the 1992-95 war produced a handful of tycoons, almost wiped out the middle class and sent the working class into poverty. Corruption is widespread and high taxes to fund a bloated public sector eat away at paychecks.

 

Bosnia and Herzegovina faces increased risk of social unrest (IHS Jane's Country Risk Daily Report, 5 February 2014)

A serious incident of violent social unrest took place in Bosnia-Herzegovina's (BiH) northern industrial city of Tuzla on 5 February.

Police estimate that 600 local workers attempted to storm cantonal buildings in protest at the government's failure to support employees at former state-owned companies that have collapsed and face liquidation. The companies affected include the privatised detergent factory Dita, and the Resod-Guming, Polihem and Poliochem chemical plants.

Demonstrators are demanding that authorities either restart production or declare the factories insolvent and carry out bankruptcy procedures, so that workers can return to work or receive at least part of their unpaid salaries.

 

Police Chief Blames Serb Paramilitaries for Bosnia Atrocities (BIRN, 7 February 2014)

Wartime Bosnian Serb interior minister Mico Stanisic told Radovan Karadzic’s trial that paramilitaries from Serbia, not local police, persecuted and murdered Bosniaks in the east of the country in 1992.

Justice Report

Stanisic, who the Hague Tribunal compelled to testify at Karadzic’s trial this week, said that Bosnian Serb interior ministry “didn’t have the capacities to deal with those groups” of Serbian fighters in 1992.

He said that in an attempt to deal with the paramilitaries, he invited, via Karadzic, a Serbian police unit to help them in July 1992.

“I issued a clear and unambiguous order – all paramilitary formations should be eliminated and arrested,” Stanisic said, adding that the order was carried out in Brcko, Bijeljina and Zvornik, then also in Visegrad.

The arrested perpetrators were “handed over to Serbia”, from where they had originally come, said Stanisic, who was jailed for 22 years by the Hague Tribunal in 2013 for persecution and other crimes against the non-Serb population in 1992.

The indictment charges Karadzic, then president of Republika Srpska and supreme commander of its armed forces, with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Zvornik is one of the seven municipalities in which, according to the charges, the persecution reached the scale of genocide.

Stanisic said that the paramilitary forces were invited by Biljana Plavsic, then a member of the Republika Srpska presidency, who in 2003 admitted that she was guilty of the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

When asked by Karadzic whether anybody asked him not to prosecute the perpetrators of crimes against non-Serbs, Stanisic said: “No, nobody made such request to me.”

“Did we have a joint plan or agreement to deport Muslims and Croats,” Karadzic asked.

“No,” Stanisic responded, adding that, as interior minister, he “worked within the framework of the law” and asked for the punishment of war crimes perpetrators irrespective of their ethnicity.

Stanisic also said that detention camps for Bosniaks and Croats were not under police control, but were run by the Bosnian Serb Army and municipal crisis committees in the summer of 1992.

When asked why he had never ordered the disbanding of the detention camps, he replied: “Because I did not issue a decision for the establishment of any of them… Those who set them up should have disbanded them.”

Stanisic also said that the murder of more than 150 Bosniaks on Mount Vlasic on August 21, 1992 was committed by members of the Intervention Squad of the Bosnian Serb Army’s military police, not the regular police, as Karadzic’s indictment alleges.

Confirming that he found out about the killings “two or three days after” it had happened, Stanisic said that police did all they could to investigate.

He said that police conducted a crime scene inspection and safeguarded surviving witnesses, while an investigative judge and prosecutor were put in charge of proceeding with the investigation.

The trial of Karadzic is due to continue on Tuesday.

 

Macedonia Ruling Party Appeals for Would-Be Presidents (BIRN, by Sinisa Jakov Marusic, 7 February 2014)

Two months before presidential elections, Macedonia’s main ruling party has asked potential contestants to apply to be its candidate for the country’s leadership role.

The centre-right VMRO DPMNE party has announced that it will choose its presidential runner at a convention set for March 1, saying that anyone who sympathises with its cause can apply.

“All Macedonian citizens who qualify under the constitution for the job of Head of State can submit their candidacies,” party spokesperson Ilija Dimovski said.

He explained that the invitation covered both VMRO DPMNE party members and anybody else who “finds themselves within party’s stands on public and national affairs”.

The open call came at a point when many people were expecting the party to finally come clean about its pick, after the first round of presidential elections was set for April 13, with the second round due on April 27.

The VMRO DPMNE party, led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, is well placed for the presidential elections, with polls suggesting that its candidate will be the favourite to win the contest.

The call increased the uncertainty over whether the incumbent Presindent Gjorge Ivanov will run for a second five-year term and whether VMRO DPMNE will again endorse his candidacy.

“We have no comment on this issue,” was the brief answer from Ivanov’s office on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a source close to the VMRO DPMNE leadership who wished to remain anonymous said that if he decided to answer the party’s call, “Ivanov will now have better chances to be endorsed” because “unlike five years ago when he was a fresh face to the party members, he has now built himself quite decent support within party ranks”.

At the 2009 presidential elections, Ivanov was a freshman in politics. His main opponent for the VMRO DPMNE candidacy was Todor Petrov, the head of the World Macedonian Congress, an NGO seen as close to the ruling party.

So far only university professor and longtime VMRO DPMNE member Jove Kekenovski has announced he will answer the call. This week he promoted parts of his platform, pledging to protect the unity of the country.

“My promotion should encourage other candidates as well to stop hiding or courting certain party authorities for support in an undignified manner,” Kekenovski said.

However, Kekenovski is considered an outsider, largely because of his often critical views about the current party leadership.

Other names mentioned in the media as potential contestants for endorsement by the main ruling party include law professor and one of the drafters of Macedonian constitution Vlado Popovski, Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski and cardio-surgeon Sasko Kedev who already ran as the VMRO DPMNE presidential candidate in 2004 but lost to Branko Crvenkovski.

Media have also mentioned Srgjan Kerim, an experienced businessman and diplomat who presided over the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly.

Outside the ruling party campus, other potential contestants also remain unknown.

The main opposition Social Democratic party, SDSM, has also not revealed its own pick, nor have any of the ethnic Albanian parties in Macedonia.

University professor Biljana Vankovska, who is known as a Macedonian advocate for the RECOM initiative for regional post-war reconciliation, recently launched a campaign to collect 10,000 signatures to enter the race as an independent candidate.

Her possible entry into the race is expected to reinvigorate the otherwise partisan-dominated presidential campaign.

The announcement of the date of the presidential election came amid growing speculation in Macedonia about the likelihood of a parallel early general election as well.