By Neil MacDonald in Belgrade

Macedonia’s hopes of starting European Union accession talks have suffered a blow after violence marred the country’s weekend parliamentary elections.

The European Commission voiced alarm about the poll, during which one man was killed and nine wounded in gun battles in areas inhabited by the country’s ethnic Albanian minority.

Nikola Gruevski, the centre-right prime minister, has claimed a landslide victory, which could give his ethnic Macedonian coalition just over half the seats in parliament. But as observers’ accounts of violence and vote-tampering raised concerns about Balkan instability, Mr Gruevski promised fresh votes in the troubled ethnic Albanian districts.

“Unfortunately, in some areas there were incidents and some irregular voting,” he said. Olli Rehn, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, said he was “very concerned” about the violence, and called for an “orderly and peaceful” repeat vote.

A report by the Commission six months ago said a free and fair election was an “essential element” for the former Yugoslavian republic to start accession talks.

Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the poll did not fully meet international standards. A final verdict will depend on a rerun in several violence-hit districts.

“Expectations of progress were not realised because of a failure to prevent violent acts in ethnic Albanian areas, and the limited and selective enforcement of laws,” the monitors said in an OSCE report on Tuesday.

With 97 per cent of votes counted, Mr Gruevski predicted that his Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Org- anisation-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity list had won 48 per cent, far ahead of its main ethnic Macedonian rivals, the Social Democrats, with 23 per cent.

The Democratic Union of Integration won only 11 per cent, just one percentage point ahead of Mr Gruevski’s preferred coalition partner, the Democratic Party of Albanians, but these results could well change with the reruns. Election officials halted voting at 22 stations amid fears for the safety of international monitors.

The last parliament dissolved itself after Greece vetoed Macedonia’s membership of Nato two months ago over objections to the republic’s name. Pressure mount- ed as ethnic Albanians – representing a quarter of the 2m population – demanded prompt recognition of Kosovo, the neighbouring state that declared independence from Serbia on February 17.