The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has today declared it victory in the first round of the local elections held on October 15. Even though not all official results have been announced, the SDSM claims to have won in more than 40 of the 81 municipalities.
Prime Minister Zaev called the victory a “victory of democracy”: “This is what Macedonia looks like when the vote is free, peaceful, and without pressure.”
The first official results support the SDSM’s claims. With 30% of 3,480 voting centers counted, the SDSM leads in 44 municipalities, including the capital Skopje. The opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, led by former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is ahead in 13 municipalities.
According to official reports, turnout for the local elections was 60% of the 1.8 million registered voters in Macedonia.
The police and Electoral Commission say that the voting process was largely peaceful, even though VMRO-DPMNE leader Gruevski complained about irregularities and said that the elections “were held in an undemocratic atmosphere and under unjust conditions.”
The OSCE was present with more than 300 observers. The findings of the OSCE monitoring mission will be published at a later point.
19 parties and coalitions participated in the first round of the local elections. The mayors will be only determined after the second round on October 29.
The local elections are generally considered to be the first test of Prime Minister Zaev after he came to power after a period of prolonged political instability.
