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SKOPJE, Oct 27 (AFP) - Kosovo, seen as a guarantor of hope for the Albanian minority and a threat for many Macedonians, dominated the campaign for the Macedonian presidential elections which are due to take place on Sunday.
The Kosovo issue was raised by the two ethnic-Albanian candidates running for the presidency, Muharem Nedzipi of the Democratic Party for Albanians (DPA), a participant in the government coalition, and Muhamed Halili, of the opposition Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP).
Both candidates used the campaign and the pro-Albanian international momentum to make more radical demands for Kosovo's independence.
They argued that the only future for the Yugoslav province was independence although this was tantamount to interfering in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia.
They also called for a constitutional change in Macedonia itself regarding ethnic Albanian rights, arguing that Albanians are not "a minority" but "a constituent people."
At the same time both Nedzipi and Halili claimed that the situation of some 150,000 ethnic-Macedonians living in neighbouring Albania -- according to Skopje's figures -- could not be compared with the Albanian minority in Macedonia.
Statements on Albanians being a "constituent people" who will "certainly be a majority in the near future" were seen by many Macedonians as a threat of division.
In such a scenario possible federalisation would be only a first step and proclamation of independence the next step towards creation of a "greater Albania."
According to the 1994 census figures Albanians comprise 22.9 percent of the Macedonian population of two million.
That figure was accepted by Albanian leaders who previously claimed there were some 800,000, i.e. 40 percent, ethnic-Albanians in Macedonia.
But future developments will to a large extent depend on maintenance of the international community's firm stand regarding the irreversibility of Kosovo status -- an autonomous province within Yugoslavia.
The debate over Kosovo's status provoked strong reactions from other candidates.
Stojan Andov, of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said that "no power" would force him to recognise Kosovo's independence, arguing that Macedonia is "a unitary state" and that an independent Kosovo would jeopardise its "territorial integrity."
President Kiro Gligorov's Social-Democratic Alliance of Macedoniacandidate, Tito Petkovski, argued that demands for changing the constitution were nothing but a "trap" and a hidden desire to make Macedonia a two-nation State, in another words to create another Albanian State.
"Macedonia will not allow it," Petkovski said.
Macedonians concerned over Albanian candidates' statements, given at rallies held with Albanian flags and the Albanian anthem, fear that a change of the constitution will jeopardise the very existence of their country that has repeatedly been threatened by its neighbours.