The ruling party VMRO DPMNE announced a deep victory in the first round of local elections that were held on Sunday in North Macedonia. The candidates of this force have managed to be elected mayors in 30 of the 80 municipalities, while considering the number of votes won in the first round, they claimed that they will win in at least 20 other municipalities, including the capital Skopje, in the second round that will be held on November 2.
According to the preliminary results, VMRO DPMNE candidates lead in 53 municipalities, but for a candidate to be elected mayor, he must receive 50 percent plus one vote, provided that at least one third of the voters registered in the electoral roll of the respective municipality have turned out to vote. “We promised victory, we have victory”, declared the Prime Minister and the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, emphasizing that the result achieved was better than that of the parliamentary elections as well as the previous ones.
Mickoski also confirmed that he has no intention of going to early parliamentary elections, as requested by the Democratic Union for Integration. Meanwhile, the opposition SDSM suffered another loss after last year’s parliamentary and presidential elections. From the preliminary results, the candidates of this force lead in 8 municipalities, while this force moves to the second round in at least 20 municipalities. Regarding the Albanian political bloc, the VLen candidates lead in 9 municipalities. The candidate of this force, Izet Mejhiti, won convincingly in the key municipality of Çair, while Bilal Kasami won in Tetovo.
In the first round, the coalition also won in four other municipalities. The coalition National Alliance for Integration (AKI), led by DUI, leads in 5 municipalities, while the vice-president of this force, Arbër Ademi, announced victory in the first round of localities in Gostivar, Likovë, Çashka and Plasnica.
journalist: Elda Pepa
