SKOPJE, June 1: Macedonians voted on Sunday in an election marred by a deadly shootout and reports of intimidation that saw polling suspended in some areas and drew expressions of concern from the European Union.

The parliamentary polls — Macedonia’s fifth since independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 — were seen as a test of the landlocked Balkan state’s democratic credentials and of its ambitions to join the EU and Nato.

Police said one person was killed and two others wounded after gunfire erupted when they were called to resolve a polling dispute in an ethnic Albanian village north of the capital Skopje.

The electoral commission halted voting at around 20 polling stations around Aracinovo, a stronghold of Albanian rebels who fought government forces in 2001.

Nine people were arrested, police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said, adding that the incident involved activists of the Democratic Union for Integration, which has been in opposition since the last elections in mid-2006.—AFP