Europe Asia News

Following the second round of local elections, the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party won in 21 of the 33 municipalities where runoffs were held, strengthening its dominance at the local level.

After two rounds of voting, the party is preparing to govern 54 of the country’s 81 municipalities — 12 more than in the 2021 local elections, when it won 42.

Orce Gjorgjievski, who captured Skopje, received more than 95,000 votes. His rival from the opposition leftist Levica (Left) party, Amar Mecinovic, doubled his first-round support from 30,000 to over 61,000 votes but finished second.

Among the ethnic Macedonian bloc, the main opposition Social Democrats (SDSM) won only three mayoral posts in the second round, a steep drop from 16 in 2021, leaving them with just six seats overall.

SDSM deputy chair Ana Cupeska announced her resignation. Party leader Venko Filipce, who took over last year, reaffirmed on Sunday that he does not plan to step down.

In the ethnic Albanian camp, the young ruling party Vlen (“Worth It”) held its ground against its main rival, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). The relatively new party on the political scene is set to win nine municipalities. DUI and its allies will win only four, a sharp decline from the 11 municipalities they held in 2021.

Albanians are the second-largest ethnic group in North Macedonia after Macedonians.