site.btaHead of VMRO-DPMNE Says His Party Will Win Upcoming Local Elections in North Macedonia

The leader of VMRO-DPMNE and Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, said in an interview for MRT 1 on Monday night that his party expects to win between 45 and 50 mayoral posts in the country's 80 municipalities in the upcoming elections. Mickoski believes that of the 850,000 to 900,000 people who choose to vote, some 400,000 will cast a ballot for VMRO-DPMNE.

He stated that whichever party or coalition gets more of its mayoral candidates to win their elections can be considered the winner of the elections.

According to the Prime Minister's predictions, SDSM will win no more than six mayors, while The Left will get none. He stated that The Left's strategy is to act as a proxy for the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI, the largest ethnic Albanian political party in North Macedonia).

Mickoski was adamant that there are no circumstances that would lead to early parliamentary elections in the country, even if the BDI wins in key municipalities.

SDSM party leader Venko Filipce on the other hand stated that VMRO-DPMNE's polls are inaccurate, and VMRO-DPMNE is aware of its deteriorating popularity, which is why it is panicking. He said: "They lost hundreds of thousands of votes compared to last year. Never before has a government experienced such a decline in popularity in just one year. However, this is not surprising, as they simply failed to accomplish anything. They have not committed themselves to solving the problems of citizens but have taken over party institutions. They have entered into public procurement tenders using their companies, through which additional fees are paid to various advisers to the Prime Minister in the government."

The leader of SDSM said that he is aware that 15 months, the time between last year's parliamentary elections and the local elections in October, was too short a period to fully restore confidence in the SDSM, but that the party was entering these elections with professionals and with honest people.

Filipce did not venture to predict how many mayors his party would have in the local elections but said that after October 19, VMRO-DPMNE will be unpleasantly surprised because "they can no longer deceive such a large number of citizens" as they did in last year's parliamentary and presidential elections.

Regardless of the outcome of the local elections, Filipce plans to remain chairman of the SDSM, he said in an interview for MRT 1.