Repeated parliamentary elections in seven constituencies from North Macedonia will be held on Wednesday, May 22, the country’s electoral court ruled, due to irregularities that occurred in the parliamentary elections held in the country on May 8.
There is speculation that these repeated elections could result in a change of two seats, to the detriment of the largest Albanian party, the DUI.
DUI leader Ali Ahmeti today accused VMRO-DPMNE and the outgoing Social Democratic Party (SDSM) of instigating these by-elections to prevent DUI’s dominance as the second largest political faction in North Macedonia and warned that this could have an impact on international relations in the country.
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“This (including the rerun of the elections) is being done by the two largest parties of Macedonian nationality, whose policies, unfortunately, we fear will have an impact on international relations, which we do not want,” noted Ali Ahmeti.
In the May 8 parliamentary elections, VMRO-DPMNE came first, occupying 58 of the 120 seats in Parliament. In second place, with 19 seats, came DUI, while only in third place, with 18 seats, came SDSM.
The coalition of four Albanian opposition parties with the name “Axizia” emerged in fourth place with 13 seats, while six seats were secured by the pro-Russian nationalist party “Left” and the newly formed party “Xero” of the mayor of Kumanovo, Maksim Dimitrievsky.
The leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Christian Mickoski, began negotiations a few days ago with the Albanian coalition “Worth” to form a government, which means that the strong reactions from DUI, which argues that, being the first among Albanian parties, it should participate in the new government and not in the Albanian opposition coalition. To all governments in North Macedonia an Albanian party always participates, among other things to maintain the fragile international balances in the country. Albanians make up 25% of the country’s population.
Christian Mickoski ruled out any possibility of post-election cooperation with the DUI, which over the last 20 years has participated in every coalition government in the country.
The new Parliament of North Macedonia must be transformed into a Chamber no later than 20 days after the conclusion of the electoral process, i.e. by 11 June (due to the repeat vote on 22 May). Subsequently, within 10 days, the new president of the Republic, Gordana Silianovska, will deliver the formation order to the leader of the party that came first in the elections (to the president of VMRO-DPMNE, Christian Mickoski), who will have 20 days to his willingness to submit the new government’s program to Parliament and request a vote of confidence.
Source: AMPE