Balkan Insight: Northern Macedonia – the ruling organization wins in local elections

The governing VMRO DPMNE organization won local elections on Sunday, winning a vast majority of the votes in almost all regions inhabited byMacedonians, leaving behind their main rival, Social Democrats from SDSM.

VMRO DPMNE candidates for mayors took first place in 53 of 81 municipalities in the country, including Skopje, the capital, which was the most crucial goalThese choices. The opposition Social Democratic organization SDSM gained an advantage only in eight, mostly smaller cities or agrarian areas. SDSM suffered a devastating defeat even in its bastion from the last 2 decades, the southeastern town of Strumica. In Skopje, their mayoral candidate did not qualify for even the second circular scheduled for November 2. There the candidate from VMRO DPMNE gained a convincing advantage, who will now face the candidate from Levica [Levice] party.

In municipalities with the majority of Albanian rivalry was more fierce. Albanians account for about a 4th of the country's population.

The younger ruling organization VLEN [Warto] won in the first circular in 5 municipalities, as did its main rivals, a coalition led by the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). However, VLEN had more reason to celebrate as it took the lead in 4 consecutive Albanian-dominated municipalities, while DUI did not score any.

Turnout was somewhat below 48 percent, which is simply a tiny decrease compared to 50 percent in erstwhile local elections in 2021," stated the State Election Commission.

In municipalities where the mayornoreceived more than half of the vote, on November 2nd circular of elections.

Source:Balkan Insight

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