What’s in a name?

Quite a bit, according to the Greeks.

Macedonia’s government chose to dissolve itself and call snap elections years ahead of schedule after a long-simmering dispute over the country’s name boiled over at April’s NATO summit in Bucharest. Greek leaders, who maintain that the name ‘Macedonia’ threatens the territorial integrity of a Greek province of the same name, made good on a long-standing threat to veto Macedonian aspirations to join the military alliance.

Greece has also vowed to block any Macedonian attempts to join the European Union until the dispute is resolved. Greece insists that Macedonians adopt a qualifier in their country’s name—‘new’, ‘northern’ or ‘upper’ being the most popular—or continue under the strange moniker by which the nation is often known internationally, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

Resurgent nationalist feelings stirred by the dispute carried Macedonia’s Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, 37, to victory in the June 1 election. His conservative bloc, led by the mildly nationalist Macedonian International Revolutionary Organization–Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), took some 48.3% of the vote and an outright majority in the 120-seat parliament. With one of the largest majorities of any government since Macedonia declared independence in 1991, Gruevski’s decision to go to the polls early has reaped dividends for the prime minister and his party.

Gruevski’s conservatives more than doubled the vote total of their traditional rivals, the center-left Social Democrats, who trailed far behind on 23.4%. The Social Democrats lost even more seats than their weak showing in the 2006 election, leading to the speedy resignation of the party’s leader.

While it’s clear that Gruevski and the VMRO-DPMNE will head the next government, it is also customary for the majority bloc to invite an ethnic Albanian party to join the administration. As such, interest has now turned to a fierce battle between two bitterly divided ethnic Albanian parties.

Albanians make up a quarter of Macedonia’s population and, since waging a brief insurgency against the government in 2001, have been split between two rival ethnic groups, the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA)—a member of Gruevski’s outgoing coalition government—and the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).

Claims of election-day fraud and ballot-stuffing in ethnic Albanian areas were rampant, leading to the suspension of voting in several polling stations. More seriously, violent outbursts in these ethnic enclaves left one person dead and several wounded. This resulted in immediate international condemnation and a pledge from Gruevski to fight for a revote in areas rocked by election-day violence. On June 7, the State Election Commission announced nullification of election results in nearly 200 polling stations. The decision, taken unanimously, will necessitate a second round of balloting in these areas on Sunday, June 15.

For Macedonia’s Albanian parties, the stakes are high.

Despite gaining the most votes among ethnic Albanians in the last election, the DUI was not invited to join Gruevski’s government—a snub from which it is still smarting. The prime minister was heavily criticized for his decision at the time, and may find it impossible to leave the most popular Albanian party out of the government for a second time.

Results from the first round of balloting indicate that the DUI has come out ahead of the DPA once again—but only just. In fact, the margin is so slim that both parties are conditionally projected to win the same number of seats in the next parliament, setting up Sunday’s revote as a fierce contest for an invitation to join the next government. Ironically, the revote may prove an irresistible platform for further violence and electoral manipulation in Macedonia’s Albanian heartland.

Whatever Sunday’s result, Gruevski has a difficult task ahead of him. He must be deliberate in choosing his eventual Albanian coalition partner to ensure credibility for his government. His overall parliamentary majority may also give him the maneuverability necessary to solve his nation’s dispute with Greece and clear the way to NATO membership and, potentially, European Union accession. Yet, the prime minister will have to balance any compromise with the wishes of his party’s core nationalist supporters, who will not take well to any resolution that compromises Macedonia’s national identity.

For Nikola Gruevski, the high-wire balancing act begins Sunday.