BRUSSELS - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday he hoped the second round of municipal elections in Macedonia would meet democratic standards after reports by international observers of "serious irregularities" in last weekend's first round of voting.
"I welcome the calm environment and generally orderly manner in which voting took place in last Sunday's municipal elections in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia," De Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.
"I therefore note with concern the reports of the International Observer Mission of serious irregularities, particularly in the west of the country."
The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said elections adhering to democratic standards were essential for any country hoping to join the western military alliance.
"I urge the leaders and people of the country to ensure that the second round meets the highest democratic standards -- standards to be expected from a NATO aspirant country."
The next round of the municipal elections will be held March 27.
The voting is considered a test of political stability in Macedonia nearly four years after the 2001 peace accord that ended a seventh-month conflict between Macedonian government forces and rebel ethnic Albanians.
The observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said in the capital Skopje Monday that there were "serious irregularities" in the voting.
The OSCE cited numerous cases of group voting, signatures missing on voter lists and overcrowding in polling stations as well as ballot stuffing, stolen ballots, proxy voting and tensions in and around polling stations and intimidation.
03/17/2005 14:50 GMT