Macedonian Government Accepts Resignation Of Defence Minister

Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski of Macedonia has accepted the resignation of defence minister Ljuben Paunovski. Paunovski motivated his earlier-announced decision to resign by moral and political responsibility for the involvement in a financial scandal. Antonio Milosevski, the government spokesman, reported that the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, the country's leading opposition party, would take part in the selection of candidates for the post of new defence minister. The Macedonian parliament should approve the proposed candidature this Friday. Observers tend to account for the involvement of the opposition party in the selection of a new defence minister by the government's efforts to form a "broad coalition" in Macedonia, though the process has not yet received considerable promotion and the issue is still open. According to the government spokesman, the Social Democratic Union has demanded for the defence minister's post in the new government, however, it has been mostly insisting on the post of the country's interior minister.