The ruling coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE has come out on top in 53 out of 81 municipalities in local elections held on Sunday, according to preliminary results from the State Election Commission, with around 70% of the votes counted.
The bloc led by VMRO-DPMNE leads in most areas, while VLEN leads in nine municipalities. Meanwhile, the SDSM coalition won in 8 municipalities, the National Alliance for Integration (AKI) came first in five municipalities, and the Turkish Democratic Party (TDP) won in one municipality.
In the municipality of Çairi, the candidate of VLEN, Izet Mejhiti, announced the victory over former minister Bujar Osmani.
In Skopje, with more than half of the votes counted, VMRO-DPMNE leads with 41.23%.
Meanwhile, in the municipality of Center Zhupa, the elections were canceled due to the participation of less than a third of the registered voters.
The participation in the entire country was 46.65%. Municipalities where no candidate received more than 50% of the votes will go to a runoff on November 2.
This was the eighth round of local elections since 1996. 10,490 candidates participated in the race, including 309 for mayor, while the process was monitored by 1,451 observers – 644 foreigners and 807 locals, including representatives from the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey.
