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Local elections in North Macedonia/Here are the winners

2025-10-20 07:22:11, Kosova & Bota CNA

The ruling party, VMRO-DPMNE, declared a convincing victory after the first round of local elections in North Macedonia, on October 19.

The party will have mayors in 30 out of a total of 80 municipalities, and expects to win about 20 more in the second round, including the city of Skopje, where its candidate, Orce Gjorgjievski, has a large lead.

"We promised victory, we have victory," declared Prime Minister and leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski.

He said he is satisfied, as the total number of votes won is greater than in previous parliamentary and local elections.

Mickoski also confirmed that he has no intention of going to early parliamentary elections, despite the insistence of the opposition DUI, and stressed that “the policies of ethnocentrism have been defeated.”

The opposition SDSM suffered another defeat after last year's elections - the parliamentary and presidential ones.

However, the party assessed that the result is not bad, as this time it won more votes in several municipalities and emphasized that there were "numerous violations" during the voting process.

SDSM will have mayors in Kriva Palanka, Bogdanc and Krivogaštan, while it expects to advance to the second round in about twenty other municipalities.

"This is evidence of the consolidation within the party that has begun and we will continue it," declared SDSM leader Venko Filipçe, who said he has no intention of resigning after these election results.

In the Albanian political bloc, VLEN candidate Izet Mexhiti won convincingly in the key municipality of Chair, while Bilal Kasami won in Tetovo. In the first round, the coalition also won in four other municipalities.

For Mexhiti, this will be his fourth term as mayor, and he will have to leave his current ministerial position after defeating former DUI minister Bujar Osmani, who congratulated him on his victory.

Members and supporters of VLEN celebrated, as they said, the "convincing victory in Çair and Tetovo" near the Skanderbeg monument in the Old Bazaar.

The National Alliance for Integration (AKI) coalition, led by DUI, won the mayoral elections in Gostivar, Lipkovo, Caska and Plasnica in the first round - announced DUI deputy leader Arbër Ademi.

He said that, at the national level, "AKI is the absolute winner with over 20,000 votes ahead, and with the votes still being processed, this difference could be even greater."

Election day passed peacefully and without major violations. Citizens' expectations are similar - a better life in more functional municipalities.

The State Election Commission announced that by 6:30 p.m. voter turnout was 46.48 percent, which is close to the level of the first round of the previous elections, when it reached 51.44 percent.

According to the electoral roll, 1,832,415 citizens were eligible to vote.

309 candidates competed for 81 mayoral positions, while over 10,490 candidates from a total of 576 lists competed for seats on municipal councils.

A feature of these elections is that men dominate the mayoral race – 277 candidates or 89.64%, while women are only 32, representing 10.36% of the total number.

The total budget that the state allocated for the organization of these local elections is 9 million 760 thousand euros, of which two-thirds are funds intended for the media and paid political advertisements.

The second round of elections is scheduled for November 2./ REL