The future of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s government hangs in the balance as Macedonian’s head to the polls for local government run-off elections on Sunday.
Social Democrat (SDSM) leader Zaev is currently clinging to power in parliament through a wafer-thin majority. Analysts say the outcome is difficult to predict, but both scenarios could have drastic implications for the country.
Key areas will include the capital of Skopje with Petre Silegov (SDSM) candidate versus independent but VMRO-DPNME Danela Arsovska. Earlier this week, the SDSM claimed Silegov holds Bulgarian citizenship, something he denies. In Tetovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian region, Teuta Arifi of BDI and Bilal Kasami of BESA, both part of Zaev’s SDSM government coalition, will compete.
In the first round of elections held on October 17, Opposition party VMRO-DPMNE claimed victory as they won mayoral races in 22 municipalities.
Zaev’s party won just nine, with its coalition partner, the Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, winning three.
The second round of voting occurs in several regions due to no candidate getting more than 50% of the vote. In these cases, the two leading candidates must go through another vote.
The first round of the election reported a turnout of around 49%.
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In terms of the outcome, Zaev hinted he could resign if he loses Skopje, meaning the country could be headed for snap elections. If this is the case, several issues may come to the fore, including the North Macedonia name change deal with Greece, the subject of the Bulgarian veto of Macedonia’s EU accession, and the as of yet unannounced results of the recent census, the first in 20 years.
