Vlado Bučkovski (; born 2 December 1962) is a former prime minister of the Republic of Macedonia, elected by parliament on 17 December 2004. He was previously the defense minister of Macedonia from May 2001 to November 2001 and from November 2002 to December 2004. He was president of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia. After the 2006 election defeat by the centre-right VMRO-DPMNE, Radmila Šekerinska took over the party's leadership. On 9 December 2008, Bučkovski was found guilty of abuse of power while serving as defence minister during an armed conflict in 2001 and sentenced to three and a half years in jail. Early life Vlado Bučkovski was born on December 2, 1962, in Skopje, Republic Of Macedonia Bučkovski graduated from the Faculty of Law in Skopje in 1986, while he took his M.A. degree in 1992 at the Faculty of Law in Skopje. He took his Ph.D. degree at the Faculty of Law in Skopje in 1998, on topic "Roman and Contemporary Law of Obligations". Working and political experience From 1987 to 1988 Bučkovski worked as an expert collaborator in the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, then part of Yugoslavia. In the period from 1988 to 2002 he worked as a lecturer, collaborator, junior assistant and as an assistant at the Faculty of Law in Skopje, while in 2003 he worked as an associate professor at the same faculty. In the period from 1998 to 2000 Bučkovski was a member of the State Election Commission; while in 2000-2001 he was a Chairman of Skopje City Council. In the period from May 13 until November 26, 2001 he performed the function of a Minister of Defense in the wide coalition Government. From November 1, 2002 until December 2004, Bučkovski again served as Minister of Defense. Bučkovski became a Chairman of the Government's Legal Council on September 15, 2003. He was elected SDSM Leader on November 26, 2004. On the same day, he was assigned a mandate for a composition of a new Government, following the resignation of former Prime Minister Hari Kostov. He served as prime minister until after the 2006 parliamentary elections, in which his party had a disappointing performance and a new government took office. Scandal Sobranie delegates belonging to parties in Macedonia's centre-right ruling coalition voted on August 20, 2007 to strip former premier Bučkovski of his immunity from prosecution. That left him liable to