Macedonia's centre-right opposition party has alleged fraud in today's presidential election and called on the authorities to annul it.
"Today we had the most irregular election," Nikola Gruevski, leader of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, told reporters shortly after voting ended at 7 p.m. (1700 Irish time).
"I call on the state electoral committee to annul the election so the government can call another one," he said, alleging ballot-stuffing and other irregularities.
The nationalist party's candidate Sasko Kedev faced centre-left Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski in the election. Crvenkovski was widely seen as the frontrunner after he came out on top in a first round of voting two weeks ago.
The election commission was not immediately available for comment on the allegations. Early unofficial election results were expected later this evening.