SDSM will help DUI in the local elections

SDSM is expected not to nominate candidates for mayors in majority Albanian municipalities where their key ally DUI will try to best the VLEN coalition.

SDSM yesterday announced 19 mayoral candidates, but none of them were in Tetovo, Cair, Saraj, Gostivar, Debar or Struga. While SDSM have largely resigned to the expectation they will lose the elections, DUI is hoping to beat VLEN in the key “Albanian” cities, and to use this to provoke a crisis in the ruling coalition.

Meanwhile ZNAM, the small party that left SDSM and is now part of the VMRO-VLEN coalition, said that it is in talks with VMRO for mutual support of mayoral candidates in some municipalities. It is widely expected that VMRO will support ZNAM leader Maksim Dimitrievski to remain Mayor of Kumanovo, and possibly to support a ZNAM candidate in a central Skopje municipality, in exchange for ZNAM support in other cities and municipalities.