VMRO-DPMNE has extended a solid lead ahead of SDSM, reports the MKD.mk news site, which published its latest Market Vision poll today.

According to the poll conducted in the past week, in the midst of the major racketeering scandal, VMRO-DPMNE will win 39.8 percent of the vote, ahead of SDSM with 31.2 percent. This result, showing that VMRO would win 28 percent more votes than SDSM, would translate into an advantage of about 10 seats in Parliament for the current opposition.

Far in third place are the two best placed ethnic Albanian parties – DUI with 9.6 percent and the Alliance of Albanians with 6.8 percent.

The poll also revealed that there is a significant fear factor in the society as about 70 percent of all voters who were approached refused to answer. Some 31.1 percent said that they “still don’t know” who they would vote for, 22.5 percent replied that they will not vote and 19.4 percent would rather not say.

Not surprisingly, the poll showed a significant drop in support for the Special Prosecutor’s Office. The institution which determined the course of Macedonian politics in the past years only to find itself at the center of a major corruption scandal, received an average grade of 1.5 on a scale from 1 to 5. This is the worst grade of all institutions which were polled. The Government, the President, the local mayors received grades between 2.22 and 2.75, but the SPO, the larger OJO organizations of prosecutors and the courts received grades between 1.5 and 1.77.