While ethnic Albanians in Macedonia demonstrated once again how important their votes are, the opposition Macedonian parties such as Social Democratic Alliance (SDSM) and the Liberal Democrats (LDP) were forced to recognize something that the parties in the ruling coalition -- the Macedonian nationalists (VMRO-DPMNE), the Democratic Alternative (DA) and the Democratic Party of the Albanians (DPA) -- have known since November 1998: ballots have no color, no name, no ethnic nor religious origin. But they sure can make a difference.
In last year's parliamentary elections in Macedonia, the the former communist SDSM won eight additional parliamentary seats because they were able to get an extra 2,000-3,000 Albanian votes in electoral districts that are Macedonian-dominated, but which have approximately 30 percent ethnic Albanian population.
Judging by the way this party has acted towards Albanians during the election campaign, one can say that they haven't learned the lesson. Yet, the situation changed during the presidential elections, as the votes of ethnic Albanians had a final word in deciding which of the two Macedonian candidates would win the presidential chair. Despite all present controversies, one thing is for sure: the Albanian votes from now on will be decisive on many issues -- because of the proportion of Albanians within the overall number of voters in Macedonia and because of the present setup of the political scene in Macedonia.
The only way that this can be avoided would be through a homogenization of the ethnic Macedonian voters on purely ethnic, as opposed to ideological, lines.
Although this may sound attractive to hard-line Macedonian nationalists, it is doubtful that they will find the strength to field a joint candidate who could represent the interests and gain the sympathies of all political subjects from the ethnic Macedonian political community.
Not to mention that this would seriously damage the democratic image of the country.
Now that the presidential elections are over and especially after the surprising early congratulations from Washington and Brussels to the newly-elected President, Boris Trajkovski, there are a few remaining questions that were pushed into the background before and during the election campaign so they would not "corrupt the idyllic harmony" between coalition partners VMRO-DPMNE and DPA.
One such question that dominates the minds of (not only) the Albanians is whether the coalition government and the parliament (both dominated by the VMRO-DPMNE) will show more support to Albanians in obtaining equal status within a multi-ethnic Macedonia. Surprisingly enough, now that the joint "enemy" -- the SDSM -- has been defeated, most of the Albanians that voted in favor of Trajkovski cannot hide their skepticism. Experiences from the past have forced the Albanians not to believe in promises and political "one night stands."
Back in 1990, the soon-to-be President Kiro Gligorov (a socialist) was also elected thanks to Albanian votes, but this didn't stop him from virtually refusing all requests by the ethnic Albanians throughout his mandate. He also continually supported the SDSM government every time that it provoked some inter-ethnic incident, which were often followed by brutal police intervention.
This attitude is still in the memory of the Albanians and fresh enough to force them to look at the near future with a considerable dose of skepticism and reserve. On the other hand, one cannot deny the fact that the number of inter-ethnic incidents and conflicts drastically decreased during the first 10 months of the joint coalition government of the VMRO-DPMNE, the DA and the DPA.
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