Conservative leads Macedonia poll

Gjorgje Ivanov will contest a run-off on 5 April

The candidate for Macedonia's ruling conservative party has taken the lead in presidential elections praised for their lack of violence.

But partial results showed Gjorgje Ivanov, of the governing VMRO-DPMNE party, had not win enough votes to avoid a 5 April run-off.

The presidential and local polls were seen as crucial to Macedonia's hopes for joining the EU and Nato.

There was tight security, with thousands of extra police deployed.

The electoral commission said voting went well during the day.

There were no reports of the kind of violence between rival ethnic Albanian parties that marred last June's parliamentary election.

"It seems that everything was in order," said EU envoy Erwan Fouere. "It was a calm and positive atmosphere."

A dispute with Greece over its name has also threatened its EU and Nato bids.

Snow

Partial results showed Mr Ivanov - the candidate of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party - to be ahead with more than 35% of the vote.

The race for second place was between Ljubomir Frckoski, who is backed by the Social Democratic SDSM, and former Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski, who was acquitted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague last year.

This is probably the last opportunity for quite some time for the country to show that it has not only the capacity, but also the political will, to organise elections in line with international standards Erwan FouereEU envoy to Macedonia

Five other candidates are also running for the largely ceremonial presidency.

Final results were expected later on Monday.

Current President Branko Crvenkovski is not running for a second term.

Heavy snowfall prevented 134 of almost 3,000 polling stations from opening.

But Aleksandar Novakovski, head of the state electoral commission, said the affected polling stations had 12,556 voters registered - less than 1% of the total 1.8 million eligible voters.

It is expected that voting there will be repeated in two weeks.

Local polls were also being held simultaneously to elect mayors for 85 communities.

Name squabble

The three weeks of campaigning passed off mostly peacefully, with a few claims of voter intimidation.

One person was killed and several injured in ethnic Albanian areas of Macedonia during parliamentary elections in June 2008 that monitors said fell short of international standards.

More than 500 international and around 7,000 local observers have been on hand to monitor Sunday's vote.

"So far so good," US Ambassador Philip Reeker said in an initial assessment of the poll.

Mr Fouere said the vote was "the last chance not to miss the train again to EU" membership.

"This is probably the last opportunity for quite some time for the country to show that it has not only the capacity, but also the political will, to organise elections in line with international standards," he said.

Last year, Greece said it would block Macedonia from joining Nato and the EU unless it compromises over its official name.

Macedonia is also the name of a northern region of Greece.

In December 2008, Macedonia decided to take the issue of its name to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.