English
VMRO-DPMNE’s convincing victory at the local elections in Mavrovo – Rostuse shows that the citizens are recognizing our hard work, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski after four municipalities held mayoral elections today. These are municipalities where turnout was below 1/3 during the original elections in October, which makes the mayoral vote invalid.
DUI won in the largest city that voted today – Gostivar, and VMRO won in Mavrovo – Rostuse, the only municipality where VMRO and SDSM were directly confronted. VMRO candidate Oner Jakuposki won 1,000 votes, more than double the votes of his opponent from SDSM and will lead the small mountainous municipality that is the home of the Mavrovo ski resort.
VMRO-DPMNE won in 56 municipalities and SDSM won in six. That is no coincidence. This is the clear political verdict of the citizens and a disaster for SDSM and the current leadership of this party. Following their historic defeat in 2025, today’s elections are just confirmation that the betraying the trust will lead to consequences. A party that won 140,000 votes at the national level can’t seriously speak for the majority, or present itself as a strong and credible opposition. SDSM must face its corrupt past and the criminals in its ranks. Without dealing with them, without clearly distancing itself from crime and corruption, this party will have no credibility, no trust and no future, Mickoski said.
SDSM responded with a statement insisting that the opposition parties won the elections today – SDSM was counting the votes won by DUI in Gostivar as a uniform “opposition” vote against the Government.