SKOPJE, Nov 6 (AFP) - The Macedonian government, buoyed by US recognition of Macedonia's constitutional name, was pulling out all the stops Saturday to scupper a referendum that could set back the peace process with the restive ethnic Albanian minority.
Prime Minister Hari Kostov has threatened to resign if Sunday's referendum, called by the VMRO-DPMNE opposition party and more than 30 other groups, succeeds in overturning EU-backed laws on decentralisation.
The legislation aims to empower the former Yugoslav republic's Muslim ethnic Albanian minority by changing municipal electoral boundaries and elevating Albanian to the status of a second official language in Skopje.
It sparked riots by the Christian Macedonian majority when it was introduced in early August, fuelled by fears it will lead to ethnic-based federalisation of the Balkan country.
VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski urged supporters at one of his last referendum rallies to "protect the unitary character of the state" and reject the new electoral boundaries.
But the government, which pushed the decentralisation laws through parliament, insists that they are vital to Macedonia's bid to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Senior government officials called on people to boycott the referendum, which requires a turnout of more than 50 percent to be declared valid. European officials have also told Macedonians to "stay at home".
"We are sure that the referendum will not succeed," Finance Minister Nikola Popovski said in the last national television debate on the referendum on Thursday night, before a 48-hour electoral silence began Friday.
The government was given a major boost Thursday when the United States announced it would recognise the country of two million people by its constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia.
The US move enraged neighbouring Greece, which insists its northern province of Macedonia has a monopoly on the name, but it has been cause for national celebration on the streets of Skopje.
And the partying looked set to continue overnight Saturday after the government took the exceptional step of abolishing bar closing times, normally set at midnight, to allow the celebrations to carry on into the morning.
"It's so obvious what they're doing," said one European diplomat in Skopje, adding that an all-night party across Macedonia on Saturday was sure to help the government's boycott campaign the following day.
"It's really 50-50 whether the referendum will succeed or not," he said.
Decentralisation is seen as the last step in the implementation of the Ohrid peace agreement which ended seven months of fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in 2001.
Ethnic tensions have calmed since the conflict and various reforms designed to improve civil and political rights for the Albanians, numbering around 25.2 percent of the population, have been implemented.
Under the new municipal boundaries, ethnic Albanians will gain majorities in the towns of Struga and Kicevo, in the mainly ethnic Albanian west of the country, while the total number of municipalities will be cut from 123 to 84.
Ethnic Albanian leaders have not spoken of a return to arms if the referendum succeeds, but they insist that the peace process will not be complete until the municipal boundaries have been changed.
"We plead with the citizens not to vote but it's up to them to choose whether to move forward to the future or back to the past," said Gezim Ostreni, of the Democratic Union for Integration of former rebel Albanian political leader Ali Ahmeti.
The chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Solomon Passi, also said Macedonians faced a "serious choice".
"At the moment the Macedonian people are faced with a serious choice -- to speed up the Euro-Atlantic integration of their country or to push back the negotiations," Passi said Saturday in an interview on Darik radio in Bulgaria.
11/06/2004 18:44 GMT - AFP