Macedonian parliament to hold constituent session Saturday

19/06/2008

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- The newly elected members of parliament will meet for the first time on Saturday (June 21st), outgoing Parliament Speaker Ljubisa Georgievski announced on Wednesday. The For a Better Macedonia coalition led by incumbent Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party has an absolute majority with 63 seats. The Sun Coalition for Europe has 27 seats; the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration has 18 seats; its main rival, the Democratic Party of Albanians, gets 11; and the Party for European Integration has one representative. The four-year terms begin during that first session. Negotiating parties will form a government by August 6th. (MIA, Makfax, A1 - 18/06/08)