| Macedonia's prime minister took the lead in elections to replace the president who died in a plane crash but did not get enough votes to avoid a runoff in two weeks, results showed Thursday. With 99.8 percent of the vote counted, Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski had about 42.5 percent, the State Election Commission said. Sasko Kedev of the opposition VMRO party was next with 34.1 percent. Embracing the late President Boris Trajkovski's commitment to unity, none of the contenders exploited friction between the ethnic Albanian minority and Macedonian majority that led to six months of fighting in 2001. International observers said Thursday that despite isolated problems, the election generally met international standards. |