By Kole Casule

SKOPJE (Reuters) – Macedonia’s parliamentary election was marred by violence in ethnic Albanian areas and suspected fraud on Sunday, with one person shot dead, nine wounded and voting halted in one town after a gun battle.

The violence among rival ethnic Albanian parties echoes incidents during the pre-election campaign and will hurt the country’s efforts to convince the European Union it is mature and democratic enough to progress towards membership.

The country’s electoral commission said there were instances of suspected fraud and irregularities such as broken or missing ballot boxes and stolen voting materials.

Two of its local officials in the ethnic Albanian Tetovo area were briefly detained by an unknown armed group before being rescued unharmed by police, the A1 TV channel reported.

“I have to express my regret and worry that after the elections in 2006, which were overall evaluated as very good, this year we have bad elections, with a great number of incidents,” commission chief Jovan Josifovski told reporters.

Scuffles broke out in several Albanian areas and a small explosive device was thrown at an empty cafe. Near Skopje, voting was stopped in the town of Aracinovo after a gun battle.

Police said officers went to the town after local monitors reported the arrival of men with machine guns. They came under fire and retaliated, killing one gunman and injuring two others.

The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) said the incident was initiated by plain-clothes police.  Continued…