After hours of confusion caused by an apparent hacking attack, the Macedonian State Electoral Commission issued its preliminary projection of seats after the early general elections.

According to the SEC, the SDSM – BESA lead coalition will have 46 seats, while the VMRO-DPMNE led coalition will have 44. Both parties are left without a clear shot at forming a Government, which requires 61 seats.

The two main parties that represent ethnic Albanians, DUI and the Alliance of Albanians, have 15 and 12 seats respectively. The far left Levica party won two seats and the minor Albanian party DPA has one. The remaining nine lists failed to win seats in the Parliament.

In the low turnout “corona elections”, SDSM and BESA have won 324,000 votes (36 percent), while VMRO-DPMNE won 312,000 (34.8 percent). DUI has 101,000 votes (11 percent) and the Alliance – 76,000 votes (8.5 percent). Levica won 37,000 votes and DPA – 13,500.

Turnout was about 51 percent, or 923,000 voters, well below the 66 percent registered in the last elections in 2016. The SEC website continues to crash. The Commission said that it will reveal more official results later today.