Macedonia's president withheld the mandate to form a government Wednesday from the runner-up in December's elections, accusing left-wing leader Zoran Zaev of jeopardizing the country's sovereignty. Further complicating the country's festering political crisis, President Gjorge Ivanov took issue with the demand by Zaev's potential coalition partners, minority ethnic Albanian parties, to make Albanian Macedonia's second official language. The country narrowly avoided civil war in 2001 after an uprising by armed ethnic Albanian groups seeking greater rights. His Social Democrats want to govern with three ethnic Albanian parties, who insist on the language designation. The demand led to the collapse of former prime minister Nikola Gruevski's attempt to form a coalition with the Albanian parties.

Source: ABC News March 01, 2017 17:47 UTC