Gov't to stage snap election

Skopje (AP):

Macedonia's prime minister yesterday said his conservative government will hold a snap general election more than a year ahead of schedule, after opposition parties staged an indefinite parliamentary boycott.

Nikola Gruevski did not announce the date for the parliamentary poll, but a senior official in his con-servative VMRO party told The Associated Press it would not occur before April. The official asked not to be identified, pending an expected announcement of the election date.

Opposition lawmakers walked out of parliament last month demanding early elections after the owner of a pro-opposition private TV station was jailed and bank accounts were frozen by a court as part of a tax-fraud investigation.