FACTBOX: Macedonia PM Gruevski re-elected

(Reuters) - Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's party came first in Macedonia's parliamentary election on Sunday, a vote marred by suspected fraud and shootings that killed one person and wounded nine others in ethnic Albanian areas.

Here are five facts about 37-year-old Gruevski, a trained economist and former finance minister:

* He took over the leadership of the VMRO-DPMNE party from discredited leader Ljubco Georgievski in 2003, softening its nationalist rhetoric and re-branding is as a pro-European conservative party with an emphasis on economic progress and improvement of living standards.

* He won the election and became prime minister in summer 2006, shaking the Macedonian political scene with his appointment of young, foreign-educated technocrats in key posts previously reserved for party veterans. The move was seen as a departure from the corruption of the past and made him one of the country's most popular politicians.

* He sought the approval of the West by including minority Albanians in his coalition government and implementing the terms of a peace treaty that ended a 2001 ethnic Albanian rebellion by promising greater rights. But his decision to ally with the second-placed Albanian party, the Democratic Party of Albanians, instead of the top-placed Democratic Union for Integration was seen as a mistake that sowed discord in the community and destabilized the country.

* Careful not to alienate his core voters, Gruevski refuses to budge in a 17-year dispute with Greece over the name Macedonia. Greece says it will veto Macedonia's entry into the EU and NATO unless the country changes its name, which it shares with a neighboring Greek province. He has said Macedonia cannot compromise its identity no matter how much it wants to enter these prestigious Western clubs.

* Famously self-assured, he called an early election in April after Greece blocked Macedonia's entry into NATO, betting that his party would emerge stronger on a wave of nationalist indignation. The election result proved him right but at the cost of his country losing face internationally over the violence.

(Writing by Ellie Tzortzi, editing by Mary Gabriel)