SDSM

He resigned due to the debacle in the second round of local elections.
"I take responsibility for the results of these elections and resign from the Prime Minister and the President of the SDSM," SDSM leader Zoran Zaev said tonight.

Leaders of the main parties in North Macedonia agreed that elections would go ahead as planned on April 12 after meeting on Thursday in the office of the caretaker Prime Minister, Oliver Spasovski.

North Macedonia's Prime Minister and leader of its ruling Social Democratic Party, SDSM, Zoran Zaev, on Sunday said a promised "clean-up" launched after lower than expected results in recent presidential polls would not go without a mass cull of party officials - and will soon include ministers.

Macedonia's main ruling party, the Social Democrats, and the ethnic Albanian BESA party have exchanged a series of mutual accusations and warnings.

The dispute erupted after the Social Democrats, the SDSM, decided to openly support BESA's bitter Albanian rivals in the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, in the October 15 local elections.

VMRO-DPMNE party, which has dominated Macedonian politics since 2006, has a 1.24% lead on socialist rival SDSM in Sunday's election, official results show.

With nearly all the vote counted, the party of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has got 37.98% of the vote.

Support for SDSM of Zoran Zaev is at 36.74%, according to the Central Election Commission (DIK)'s website.

Civil associations and opposition parties led by the Social Democratic Party, SDSM, announced protests for Wednesday and Thursday following the President's surprise decision to pardon all politicians under investigation.

"This decision represents a classic breach of the legal system of the country," SDSM leader Zoran Zaev said on Wednesday, calling on people to join mass protests.

Top politicians, opposition leaders, NGO activists, journalists, businessmen, top academics, religious leaders and members of the judiciary have been subjected to widespread surveillance ordered by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and secret police chief Saso Mijalkov, the opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, claimed on Monday.

Macedonia's main opposition party has filed corruption charges against Police Minister Jankuloska on two criminal accounts of misuse of office and of tax evasion.

The Social Democrats, SDSM, say she illegally accepted cash donations for her party, VMRO DPMNE, in 2006.