About 1.8 million Macedonian citizens are eligible to vote in Sunday's early parliamentary election, called after the parliament was dissolved in April at the proposal of the VMRO-DPMNE coalition led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski due to the opposition's months-long boycott of the Sobranje.
Polling stations opened at 7 am and close at 7 pm.
Voters can choose among 18 slates, including two coalitions led by VMRO-DPMNE and the strongest opposition Social Democratic Alliance (SDSM), and 10 independent parties. There are also four parties representing Macedonian Albanians.
This is the first election in which about 10,000 Macedonian emigrants in Europe, America, Australia, Asia and Africa can elect their three deputies.
The election is monitored by 330 Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers and about 3,500 representatives of the Macedonian association of non-governmental organisations MOST.
The last parliamentary election was held in 2008, with irregularities and incidents in which one person was killed.
The election campaign began on May 16 and focused on living standards and a 30-per cent unemployment rate.
Since the last election, Macedonia has made no progress towards European Union and NATO membership, but public support remains high at over 90 per cent. Citizens expect the new government to step up the integration processes.
