ABSTRACT
The polarization of nationalist forces in Bosnia-Hercegovina was a potentially disturbing factor in Yugoslavia's political development, but the character of emergent pluralism in other republics also had important consequences for the cohesion of the country. By the time the election was held, over twenty parties were operating in Macedonia, although only a half dozen would emerge as major electoral contenders. The two most important parties espousing a nationalist platform on behalf of ethnic Macedonian voters were the Movement for Pan-Macedonian Action (MAAK) and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE). In early December, following elections in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the first phase of voting in Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro were the only two republics where ruling communists had not been subjected to the baptism of free elections. The elections of 1990 also clarified the weakness of those political forces that were focused on transcending interregional and interethnic divisions in Yugoslavia.
