BESA party

North Macedonia's main opposition VMRO DPMNE party on Monday filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, sticking to its promise to do so unless Zaev resigned by the 2.30pm ultimatum it gave him.

The MP and VMRO DPMNE vice-president Aleksandar Nikolovski confirmed this at a press conference in Skopje.

VMRO-DPMNE is the absolute winner of yesterday's local elections in the Republic of North Macedonia, according to the latest data announced tonight on the website of the State Election Commission, Macedonian media reported.

The forthcoming local elections on October 17 will again be dominated by male mayoral candidates, official data on candidacies that was recently published by the State Electoral Commission reveals.

Out of a total of 298 candidates who will be competing for mayoral seats in the country's 81 municipalities, only 26, or less than nine per cent, are women, the data shows.

The coalition will be joined by two MPs of the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, and three MPs aligned with a faction of the BESA party led by Afrim Gashi, BIRN reported.

The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, is already in the government.

Talks aimed at broadening support in parliament for Zoran Zaev's fragile government in Macedonia have entered their final phase, and the outcome should be known within the next few days or next week.

Up to ten MPs from smaller ethnic Albanian parties could soon boost the government's narrow majority in parliament, but settling their petty feuds so that they can all join his administration poses a challenge for Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

After a meeting on Wednesday night, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, confirmed that one key obstacle to backing a new opposition Social Democrat-led government - a new law extending the use of the Albanian language - had been removed.

Amid the ongoing delay in forming a new government after the December 11 elections, an opinion poll published on Monday suggested that if the polls were repeated, the ruling VMRO DPMNE party and its bitter rival, the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, would win almost equal support, as they did two months ago.

The European Commission expressed "concern" on Monday over the "tensions and the negative rhetoric" present in Macedonia in the past few days.

Spokesperson Maja Kocijancic called on the country's political players to "act responsibly" so that people's faith in Macedonia's institutions and in the democratic processes is restored.

VMRO DPMNE leader and former prime minister Nikola Gruevski on Saturday savaged the work of Macedonia's election commission, the DIK, after it accepted a complaint about the recent general election result filed by an opposition party.