DUI party leader Ali Ahmeti dismissed the option of forming a pre-election coalition with SDSM. DUI and SDSM formed a coalition following the 2016 general elections, but SDSM is encroaching on the ethnic Albanian votes, which causes friction with DUI, and Ahmeti’s party risks losing its independence if it fields a joint list of candidates, which would merge its votes with those of SDSM and would prevent Ahmeti from showing his strength on the ground.

I believe that a pre-election coalition would not benefit neither SDSM nor DUI. I don’t think that we will be their saviors and enter into such a coalition. We still have differences in our programs, especially on national lines, Ahmeti said.

SDSM is down in the polls as opposed to VMRO-DPMNE, and it is seen that its only way to make up the difference would be to combine its strength with that of DUI. The two parties had a pre-election coalition for the 2019 presidential elections, and even then, they barely held off VMRO without the help of the opposition ethnic Albanian parties in the second round.