Macedonian opposition leader Nikola Gruevski says he will start putting together a new coalition government as he promised to restart the economy.
Macedonian election officials say Gruevski's nationalist party won more than 32 percent of the vote in Wednesday's parliamentary elections. The ruling Social Democrats got 23 percent.
Leaders of the Democratic Union for Integration, an ethnic-Albanian party, say they will consider a coalition with the nationalists.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitored the Macedonian vote and called the elections largely democratic, but it said violence and intimidation cast a shadow over the election campaign.
The U.S. State Department Thursday congratulated Macedonia on a successful election and said that any cases of irregularities must be fully investigated.
European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed what he called the orderly election process.
Macedonia hopes to join both the EU and NATO.