Since all previous elections in the country's 15-year history have been marred by violence and fraud, it was no surprise that the "international community" was holding its breath.
It thus indeed seemed that election day was in danger of going up in flames and, with it, Macedonia's hopes of ever joining NATO and the European Union; the West had warned bluntly that the country's fate in this regard depended on its ability to conduct "fair and free" elections.
The major difference from the election of 2002 is that this year's was not framed against the backdrop of a war.
The Republic of Macedonia is a portion of the geographical region of Macedonia, containing roughly 38 percent of the area and about 44 percent of the population of the wider region.
The initial period of idealism for IMRO ended, however, with the Vinitza Affair and the discovery by the Ottoman police of a secret depot of ammunition near the Bulgarian Republic of Bulgaria is a republic in the southeast of Europe.
The launch of pro-Serbian and pro-Greek guerilla detachments into MacedoniaMacedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in south-eastern Europe with an area of about 67,000 square kilometres and a population of 4,76 million.