Leaders go head to head later this month

The presidential elections in Macedonia failed to produce an outright winner in the first round, but most papers appear happy enough with the outcome.

Both Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski and his main rival Sasko Kedev made it through to a runoff on 28 April. But at least one paper believes the electorate made the loudest statement, with barely one in two Macedonians turning up to vote.

"Crvenkovski takes modest lead over Kedev," says the headline plastered right across the front page of the Dnevnik daily.

Backers of both candidates celebrated their results right into the early hours Dnevnik

Mr Crvenkovski may have won the first round by 60,000 votes, but the paper's photographs show both him and Mr Kedev in apparently triumphant mood.

The two sets of supporters were also united in expressing their satisfaction with the voting.

"Backers of both candidates celebrated their results right into the early hours, and shots from Kalashnikovs were fired in the streets of the town of Tetovo," the paper says.

The headline in Utrinski Vesnik does not ignore Gezim Ostreni and Zidi Xhelili, the two ethnic Albanian candidates defeated in the first round.

"Crvenkovski and Kedev move ahead, Xhelili defeated in one-on-one duel with Ostreni," it says.

Crvenkovski, the paper adds, has more cause to celebrate than Kedev.

"There was a victorious atmosphere in Mr Crvenkovski's press centre late last night. News of his lead was a good reason for his election HQ to make optimistic statements."

Nova Makedonija celebrates what it sees as a triumph for democracy.

"With minor exceptions, the voting passed in a peaceful atmosphere," it says. "This is what a mature, democratically-inclined state deserves."

Peaceful elections, turnout below expectations Vreme

The headline in the Vreme daily suggests it harbours rather more mixed feelings.

"Peaceful elections, turnout below expectations," it says, arguing that voters were the true winners of this election, as they punished politicians by boycotting the polls.

The popular Vest daily finds room for some less serious reporting.

"A kiss on the cheek for Crvenkovski," says its headline, as it reports the prime minister was kissed by a female fan while he was casting his vote.

Not all Macedonians, however, were quite so caught up with election day.

The paper notes an "unexpected wave" of people headed off to Greece and Bulgaria on shopping trips, in preference to visiting their local polling station.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.