Held under tight police security, the rerun had not been expected to change the overall result from June 1 elections. But it was meant to determine which of the two main ethnic Albanian parties would be invited to join the governing coalition.

State electoral commission spokesman Zoran Tanevski said the reruns, conducted at stations where violence and irregularities occurred during the earlier vote, showed prime minister Nikola Gruevski's VMRO party had won 48.8% of the vote, with 99.87% of the votes from both rounds counted. The main opposition Social Democrats received 23.65%, he said.

Mr Tanevski said that the ethnic Albanian DUI party had garnered 12.77% of the vote and its arch-rival DPA received 8.47%.

Sunday's voting was held without any major problems in 183 polling stations, mostly in ethnic Albanian areas. Minor breaches stopped voting in four polling stations. The country's total number of polling stations is 2,976. Overall turnout was 57.16%.

"Macedonia has proved that it can and must conduct fair and democratic elections," electoral commission head Jovan Josifovski said.

The two ethnic Albanian parties have no major political differences. Although DUI has traditionally allied itself with the Social Democrats and DPA with the centre-right VMRO, whichever party led the voting was expected to form a coalition with Mr Gruevski's party.

Electoral commission officials said the total number of seats won by each party would not be made public for at least 48 hours, to allow the commission to investigate potential complaints. Parties are expected to announce their own forecasts.

On election day two weeks ago, gunfights in ethnic Albanian areas left one person dead and eight wounded. The violence brought international condemnation at a time when Macedonia is trying to prove its credentials for EU and Nato membership.

Ethnic Albanians make up about a quarter of the tiny Balkan country's 2.1 million population.