Macedonian parliament convened on Saturday to approve a new government proposed by Prime Minister elect Nikola Gruevski two weeks ago, news reaching here from Skopje reported.
In Macedonia's June 1 early general polls, Gruevksi's VMRO-DPMNE won a landslide victory with 63 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
Gruevski chose the Democratic Union for Integration, an ethnic Albanian party who won most seats among two main Albanian political parties for co-governing.
Ethnic Albanians account for a quarter of Macedonia's 2.1 million people.
Most ministers from the previous government will stay on their jobs in the new government.
Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki, Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska, Minister Without Portfolio of Economy Zoran Stavreski, Finance Minister Trajko Slavevski and Justice Minister Mihajlo Manevski are all keeping their positions.
Minister for Transport Mile Janakieski as well as Minister Without Portfolio in Charge for Foreign Investment Vele Samak will also stay. Aco Spasenoski will again lead the Ministry of Agriculture.
The new defense minister will be Zoran Konjanovski, and the spokesman of the outgoing government Ivica Bocevski will lead the European Union integration department.
Vesna Kanceska Milevska will be appointed head of the Ministry of Culture while Pero Stojanovski will lead the Ministry of Education. Ivo Ivanovski will lead the newly formed Ministry for Information Society.
The Albanian Democratic Union of Integration party heads five ministries: health, economy, local government, ecology, and labor and social policy.
Abdulakim Ademi from the ethnic Albanian party will serve as the country's deputy prime minister, in charge of implementing a peace deal reached after Macedonia's 2001 internal conflict between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians.
Macedonia's opposition parties led by the Social Democrats and another ethnic Albanian party the Democratic party of Albanians boycotted the parliament session.
Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski had to delay the session from 11 a.m. local time to 5 p.m., waiting vainly for the oppositions to turn up.
The Social Democrats walked out of a parliament session last week in protest against the arrest of its deputy leader, accusing the ruling coalition of trying to intimidate the opposition and force it into wilderness.
Voting is to be carried out by midnight at the latest.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article