site.btaGovernment Bloc Secures 25 of 33 Municipalities in North Macedonia Run-off Vote

Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) won the run-off in the local elections in North Macedonia in 21 of the 33 municipalities and in the City of Skopje, the Central Election Commission announced the unofficial results on Sunday evening.

Besides Skopje, where the mayor over the next four years will be Orce Gjorgjievski, and the Skopje municipalities of Aerodrom and Karpos, the ruling party will also have mayors in the municipalities of Brvenica, Valandovo, Vinica, Debarca, Demir Kapija, Dojran, Kicevo, Konce, Kocani, Krusevo, Lozovo, Makedonski Brod, Mogila, Negotino, Probistip, Rankovce, Rosoman, Cesinovo-Oblesevo and Cucer Sandevo.

The coalition partner of VMRO-DPMNE, the Vlen Coalition, won the run-offs in Bogovinje, Debar, Dolneni and Tetovo, while the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) prevailed in Zrnovci, Makedonska Kamenica and Skopje's Centar Municipality.

National Alliance for Integration (NAI), which is formed around the country’s largest ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), won in Studenicani. ZNAM movement won in Kumanovo. The Roma Union will again have a mayor in Suto Orizari, while in Struga an independent candidate was elected.

VMRO-DPMNE Chair Hristijan Mickoski declared a “great election victory”.

“This is a victory of faith, hope, the longing for the future. This is a victory of the suffering people, of their dreams that we are fighting for, of their hopes and of our common homeland,” Mickoski said.

SDSM Chair Venko Filipce said that the results of the local elections are an incentive for the party to continue fighting strongly against the government, which, he said, will never again have the level of support it had in the 2024 parliamentary elections. The Left, however, whose candidate for mayor of Skopje placed second but doubled the number of votes in the run-off, said that the opposition dynamics are already shifting behind The Left and called on SDSM supporters to stand behind them as the left-wing political option.

In the Albanian political bloc, the Vlen Coalition called on DUI Chair Ali Ahmeti to resign and announced that with the results of the local elections, Vlen is now “the second political force in the country” and that “the change among Albanians in North Macedonia is complete”. Ahmeti said that “the loss of certain positions at the local level is a call to strengthen the structures and improve communication with the people”.

According to the results published so far, after both rounds of the local elections in North Macedonia, VMRO-DPMNE will have 55 mayoral seats, Vlen Coalition 10, SDSM six, NAI four, and ZNAM movement and the Roma Union one each.

In four municipalities - Gostivar, Mavrovo-Rostusa, Vrapciste, and Centar Zupa - the mayoral elections failed. Once the final results for local government voting are announced, new elections will be called, as the turnout threshold of at least one-third of registered voters was not reached.