North Macedonia’s Social Democrats eked out a razor-thin win over nationalist rivals, according to official election results, highlighting deep faultlines in a country preparing to start EU membership talks.

The vote on Wednesday was the first parliamentary election since the Social Democrats added “North” to the Balkan country’s name last year – a move that ended a decades-old dispute with Greece but was highly controversial at home.

The accord ushered the Balkan state into Nato and opened the door to future EU membership.

But critics are still bitter about conceding part of their identity to appease Athens, which claimed exclusive rights to the name Macedonia for its own neighbouring region.

Lacking an outright majority with only 35.8% of the vote, the centre-left Social Democrats will now face tough coalition talks to form a government that could drag on for weeks.

This could postpone stable leadership at a time when coronavirus infections are surging and the country’s already weak economy is heading towards a pandemic-triggered recession.

If the Social Democrats fail to form alliances, the rightwing VMRO-DPMNE, just behind with 34.5% of the vote, according to the state election commission, would get a chance to build a government.

That party is formally pro-EU but has been critical of the name deal, lambasting it as “treason”.

“Our path to progress is confirmed,” the Social Democrat leader and former prime minister, Zoran Zaev, told supporters in a victory speech.

“The citizens went out and voted for a clear future, for unity and solidarity, for economic patriotism, for law and order and to choose better present and a better future,” he said, adding that his camp had a three-seat advantage in the 120-member assembly.

At the opposition headquarters, the VMRO-DPMNE secretary general, Igor Janusev, said the vote still showed “people want change”.

Despite the first-place finish, the Social Democrats fared worse than in the previous poll in 2016, when they ended VMRO-DPMNE’s nearly decade-long rule.

There was a perception that beyond the progress with the EU talks, the party had “not delivered on some of the key promises, including justice reforms”, said Elena Stavrevska, a political scientist at the London School of Economics.

Low wages, high unemployment and widespread corruption have also been gnawing away at public faith in politics for years.

“We have had enough of promises, now it is time for progress,” said 70-year-old Dimitar Sumkovski, a voter in the capital Skopje.

The elections were held to replace a caretaker government that took over when Zaev stepped down six months ago after the EU’s initial failure to open accession talks – a promise Brussels had made in exchange for the name alteration and other changes.

The bloc later gave the green light in March, although Skopje is still waiting for a date to start formal negotiations.

Analysts predicted “difficult” coalition talks and a weak government. “We are going into a period of hard party negotiations and I think the government won’t be as stable as it was expected,” said Nikola Spasov, a political analyst.

The Social Democrats’ top options for partners are parties representing the ethnic Albanian minority, who make up about 25% of the 2 million population.

The Democratic Union for Integrity (DUI) was ranked third with about 12% of the vote, followed by another rival Albanian camp with about 9%, according to the election commission.

DUI, the traditional kingmaker, has this year demanded its candidate be named prime minister in exchange for any alliance.

Zaev and the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, have previously rejected the proposal as “blackmail”.

With nearly 400 deaths from Covid-19, the land-locked country has the highest per capita fatality rate in the western Balkans, according to official data.

Masks were mandatory at polling stations, which closed later than normal to allow for social distancing. Those infected with the virus were allowed to cast ballots earlier in the week, as were elderly and infirm people.