Macedonia's ruling conservatives claim parliamentary, presidential election victory

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikoa Gruevski gets his finger marked at a polling station in Skopje April 27, 2014. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia's ruling conservative VMRO-DPMNE party claimed a double victory in parliamentary and presidential elections on Sunday, based on its own vote count ahead of an official result.

"I can say that our fatherland is in safe hands. Nikola Gruevski remains prime minister and I can also say...that Gjorge Ivanov remains president," Vlatko Gjorcev, a senior party official, told reporters.