Slovakia goes to a second round of presidential elections on April 4, as does Macedonia on April 5 - coinciding with Moldova’s parliamentary elections that will in turn produce a new president; while some polls suggested that the elections likely to produce the fewest fireworks would be those in Montenegro on March 29, predicted to end decisively in favour of the governing coalition.

Macedonia
The March 22 elections in Macedonia appear to have satisfied widespread calls for voting to proceed peacefully. By the standards of South Eastern Europe, allegations of voting abuses were relatively few.

Ahead of the March 22 vote, a major concern had been that there would be a repeat of the violence seen in the June 2008 parliamentary elections that left one person dead, several injured and property damaged in the country’s mainly ethnic Albanian areas.

However, the first round of the presidential elections, and the municipal vote, was pronounced by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe as having met international standards, a conclusion that drew praise for Macedonia from the European Commission and from Washington.

The second round of presidential elections will see Georgi Ivanov, a member of prime minister Nikola Gruevski’s conservative VRMO-DPMNE’s party up against Social Democrat Ljubomir Frckovski. In the March 22 first round, Ivanov got about 35 per cent of the votes compared to 20 per cent for Frckovski.

In the local elections, Gruevski’s coalition won a majority of council seats in 55 municipalities across Macedonia, including all major cities. It also won 25 mayoral seats. The opposition recorded a majority in council seats in 10 municipalities, local news agency Mina said.

Montenegro
A March 28 report by Radio and Television Serbia (RTS) from Podgorica quoted a Democracy Centre opinion poll as saying that the For European Montenegro coalition headed by the incumbent prime minister of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, would win an absolute majority in the election on March 29.

Opposition Movement for Change of Nebojsa Medojevic rejected the forecast, saying For European Montenegro would collect about 13 per cent. The Democracy Centre poll said that Medojevic’s party would receive the support of 6.3 per cent of the voters.

A key issue in the Montenegro election, being held ahead of time about halfway through the term of office of the current parliament, is the economy. Montenegro has been hard hit by the global economic crisis, including by falling tourism, fallout from problems in the Russian economy and reduced global prices of aluminium, an important export product for Montenegro.

Montenegro’s ruling coalition headed by Djukanovic is, in effect, seeking a vote of confidence for its plan for the economy, which may include asking the International Monetary Fund for assistance.

Slovakia
Incumbent president Ivan Gasparovic will be challenged by Iveta Radicova in a run-off presidential election in Slovakia on April 4.

Gasparovic got the most votes in the first round on March 21, but with close to 47 per cent of the vote, his lead was just 8.7 percentage points, and in any case was short of the 50 per cent required for a decisive victory in the first round.

Radicova, a sociology professor, is backed by a coalition of centre-right opposition parties.

While the post of president is a largely ceremonial one, debate in Slovakia currently is dominated - perhaps inevitably - by economic questions. Unemployment hit a 29-month high of 9.72 per cent in February.

Moldova
April 5 parliamentary elections in Moldova will in turn produce a new president because Vladimir Voronin is completing the second and final term of office allowed to him.

After the 2005 parliamentary and presidential elections, the country’s Communist Party has ruled with a parliamentary coalition made up with the assistance of the Christian-Democrat People’s Party (CDPP).

The Communist Party is again expected to win. Key issues in the election are the competing formulas offered for relations with Russia and the EU, and to resolve the lingering Transdniestria dispute.

On March 5, Radio Free Europe said that the country’s national bank deputy governor Victor Cibotaru said on March 4 that the country’s currency, the leu, was unlikely to drop against the euro or the dollar anytime soon.

He told RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service that the bank had enough reserves to keep the currency afloat, despite a sharp decrease in remittances. The Moldovan press has said that the national bank would do anything to keep the leu strong until the April 5 general elections to avoid a crisis that could upset the ruling Communist Party’s chances of winning. Cibotaru rejected these reports and said that Moldova could also count on extra cash from the IMF and EU to prop up its reserves.

Moldova’s economy has shown resilience during the economic downturn, and its currency has not nose-dived like Ukraine’s. Economists say Moldovan banks are not exposed to overspills from Western European banking troubles, but they warn that Europe’s poorest country could still face trouble if remittances stop coming and if its exports drop.