Macedonian lawmakers voted to dissolve parliament and call early elections over the quarrel with Greece, which recently vetoed Macedonia's NATO-membership invitation over the 17-year-long dispute with Athens, which objects to Skopje using the name Republic of Macedonia. Athens says the name implies a territorial claim on Greece's northern province of Macedonia, the birthplace of Alexander the Great.
A recent opinion poll gave Gruevski's coalition 31% compared to 11% for its closest rival, Radmila Sekerinska's Social Democrats. Gruevski's party, which is expected to win on a surge of nationalist sentiment, promises not to change the ex-Yugoslav republic's name under Greek pressure and continue negotiations on Macedonia's entry into the European Union and NATO.
