Winning more than 55 seats in the 123-seat parliament, the VMRO-DPMNE party declared its victory in Macedonia's early parliamentary elections held on Sunday, the party leader Nikola Gruevski said after the announcement of preliminary results on Monday.
The VMRO-DPMNE won 39.5 percent of the vote, the state election commission said. International reported that this ruling party would have to forge a coalition to form a new government.
The opposition Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM) finished second mustering 32.5 percent of the vote, with SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski admitting defeat.
The Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), representing the interests of ethnic Albanians, won 10.38 percent. This party was a junior partner in the previous governing coalition and is likely to be part of a ruling coalition again.
The Democratic Party of Albanians garnered 5.39 percent of the vote.
Of 1.8 million Macedonian citizens eligible to vote, 63.3 percent turned out for the vote.
The early election was called after the parliament was dissolved in April at the proposal of the VMRO-DPMNE coalition led by Prime Minister Gruevski due to the opposition's months-long boycott of the Sobranje.
This was the third consecutive election victory of the VMRO-DPMNE since 2006 and 2008 when an early election was also held.
