LOW TURNOUT HITS VOTE ON RENAMING OF MACEDONIA

SKOPJE:Macedonia’s

prime minister vowed to push ahead with changing the country’s name after voters approved it in a referendum, but the outcome looked uncertain Monday as opponents said low turnout made the result void.

Premier Zoran Zaev wants to rename the Balkan state North Macedonia to end a long-running row with Greece and build ties with the West.

More than 90% of the country’s 1.8 million voters supported the name-change in Sunday’s referendum, but only a third of the electorate turned out.

“More than 90% of the total votes are ‘yes’, so now it is parliament’s turn to confirm the will of the majority,” Zaev told AFP on Sunday. But opponents of the move said the low turnout called the legitimacy of the referendum into doubt.

The head of the right-wing opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, Hristijan Mickoski, told reporters the government had “lost its legitimacy”.

Through the name change, Zaev aims to open a path to integration with the West by settling the decades-long dispute with Greece. Greece has its own northern province named Macedonia and has accused its northern neighbour of territorial ambitions. Zaev and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras agreed in June on the name North Macedonia. In return for the new name, Athens would drop its longstanding objections to the Balkan country joining the European Union and NATO.

Zaev now needs two-thirds of MPs to ratify the deal.

He has support from ethnic Albanian groups in his coalition but would also need to win over opposition lawmakers.

Mickoski said voters had responded to calls to boycott the referendum and called on the government to “respect the will of the people”. AFP