Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski casts his ballot at a polling station in Skopje, capital of Macedonia, June 1, 2008. Macedonians went to the polls on Sunday in the country's first early general election since it gained independence in 1991. (Xinhua Photo)

Macedonia's ruling alliance led the country's elections with ballots from 736 of the total of 2,976 polling stations counted, initial results showed on Sunday.

The coalition of For Better Macedonia led by Nikola Gruevksi's VMRO-DPMNE has won 56,507 votes, while the opposition coalition Sun-coalition for Europe led by the Social Democrats won 26,510 votes.

The main ethnic Albanian opposition party, the Democratic Union for Integration, got 16,925 votes, while the ruling Democratic Party of Albanians harvested 22,538 votes.

The state Electoral Commission President, Jovan Josifovski, said that voter turnout at the elections amounted to 58.34 percent, which is 3.5 percent higher than the 2006 parliamentary elections.

Sunday's election was marred by deadly violence. One man was shot dead, several others injured, one seriously, and police are hunting for more involved in a series of shootings.

The Macedonian government had said it would make arrangements for re-voting at 22 polling stations suspended over violence and irregularities.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2008)