Macedonia

Abstract

In October and November 1998, at the parliamentary elections in Macedonla, the coalition led by the Social Democratic Alliance for Macedonia (SDAM), a party made up of communists and in power since the country became independent, was defeated and was replaced by the opposition led by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (IMRO-DPMNU). This was the first time that alternance was taking place in a country of the former Yugoslavia. The first multiparty parliamentary election had taken place in Macedonia in December 1990. At that election, the former communists, renamed Party of Democratic Reform and later Social Democratic Alllance for Macedonia (SDAM), gained 31 seats in the 120-seat parliament (Sobranje), the IMRU- DPMNU obtained 37, the Liberal Party 19 and two Albanian parties 25 (Albanians being almost a quarter of the population).