Gunmen opened fire in at least two towns and raided a polling station during Sunday's general election in Macedonia which forms a key part of a Western-brokered peace deal.

A number of violent incidents were reported along with other irregularities at polling stations during the first national vote since an internal uprising brought the country to the brink of civil war last year.

Armed men are reported to have stolen at least one ballot box

Elsewhere, however, polling day proceeded busily but quietly as Christian Orthodox Macedonians and the minority Muslim ethnic Albanians cast their votes.

Voting ended late on Sunday, with election officials saying turnout was high at more than 50% of the electorate.

A change of leadership is widely expected from the election, the results of which will begin to emerge on Monday.

The poll was watched by 800 election observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) - its biggest such operation so far.

Nato troops in Kosovo were also put on standby to back their colleagues who have been helping to implement last year's peace deal which ended an ethnic Albanian uprising.

Troubled day

In the election troubles, armed men seized a ballot box from a polling station in Tetovo, according to police and official observers.

Election monitors reported that a gunman opened fire near a polling station in the village of Slupcane, near Kumanovo.

In Kumanovo itself, OSCE officials expressed concern at the presence of several unmarked cars whose passengers, monitors say, have been intimidating voters.

Closer to Macedonia's capital Skopje, members of the ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, said a party worker was shot in a dispute by supporters from a rival group.

His injuries were not said to be life-threatening.

Pre-election violence had occurred mostly around Tetovo, with police officers and at least one ethnic Albanian rebel killed in recent days.

Heated campaign

Political leaders marked the end of a heated campaign with calls for Macedonia to move on from violence.

Branko Crvenkovski, the head of the opposition Macedonian Social Democrats (SDSM) and the man tipped to form a new government, said: "I'm convinced that Macedonia and democracy will win.

"I hope voters go to vote in great numbers and the elections pass in a peaceful and democratic atmosphere," he said after voting in Skopje.

We have suffered so much - it is time for change

Voter Elenica Janevska

"It's most important that from these elections Macedonia gains institutions with credibility and the confidence of the citizens, ones that are capable of solving our problems."

Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, head of the ruling nationalist VMRO-DPMNE coalition, said the elections had been the most peaceful since the ex-communist country's first democratic polls 12 years ago.

"It will show that we can hold fair and democratic elections without incidents. I hope that the final winner will be the people themselves," he said.

Change demanded

Voters from both sides agreed that they wanted change.

The ballot paper - with 24 party lists - was testing some voters

Murat Ramadani, an ethnic Albanian who went to vote draped in an Albanian flag, said: "The situation here has been unbearable.

"We don't want war and crime - we want peace and work."

Elenica Janevska, 75, a Macedonian, said: "We have suffered so much - it is time for change."

For some voters, the most troublesome part of the day was dealing with the 40-centimetre-long (16-inch) ballot paper.

But correspondents say the results could bring new tension if there is an attempt to bring into government the former guerrilla leader Ali Ahmeti whose party is expected to become the dominant force among ethnic Albanians.