Social Democratic Union of Macedonia

The results of the municipal polls have brought the governing Social Democrats' arch-rivals in the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party back into the game - and closer to possibly forming a new government.

North Macedonia's main opposition VMRO DPMNE party declared victory over the centre-left government on Sunday night after polls closed in the local elections, which would mark a striking political comeback after three election defeats to the ruling Social Democrats.

Local elections will be held today in the neighboring Republic of North Macedonia, a BGNES reported.

1,824,864 people have the right to vote. 301 candidates are running for mayor and 10,600 for municipal councilors. Twelve candidates are running for mayor of the capital, Skopje. The second round of elections will take place on October 31.

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.

But he also says that going solo into the forthcoming elections, after previously abandoning the alliance led by the Social Democrats, does not mean the small parties are withdrawing parliamentary support for the current government.

Dimitrovski dismisses talk of a new parliamentary majority led by VMRO DPMNE as an illusion.

North Macedonia's largest opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, has set up roadblocks in Skopje and about 10 other cities across the country, demanding the government release details of a roadmap being negotiated between Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and Bulgaria, Skopje Diem reported.

Zaev's ascent to power can be traced to his starring role in lifting the lid on the corruption, meddling and abuse of power that had become widespread in Gruevski's regime, when the Social Democrat leader began feeding intelligence service wiretaps to the media in a series of sensational press conferences in 2015.

Monday's agreement between Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, the leader of the ruling Social Democrats, and the opposition VMRO DPMNE party leader, Hristijan Mickoski, to postpone the nationwide census for six months from April to September due to the COVID-19 crisis has angered members of the ruling coalition as well as opposition parties.

Several smaller parliamentary parties from all sides of the political spectrum in North Macedonia, supported by the main ruling Social Democrats, on Friday filed a fresh draft to change the election system and encourage more political diversity.

The former partners in the last coalition government in North Macedonia, the Social Democrats, SDSM, of Zoran Zaev, and the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, led by Ali Ahmeti, are engaged in substantial talks on a new government, amid speculation that talks might be stuck over the DUI's insistence on an ethnic Albanian prime minister.