DUI seems determined to nominate its leader – Ali Ahmeti – for President. Ahmeti’s main lieutenant, Artan Grubi, posted a social media comment declaring – Only Ali Ahmeti! – a clear indication that the former terrorist commander who began the 2001 civil war and has controlled Albanian politics in Macedonia since then (and currently largely controls the Government) will enter the race.

DUI was provoked into this move by Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who successfully negotiated the creation of a strong Albanian opposition that will challenge DUI. This group is made up of BESA, Alternative, Movement for Change and, more recently, the Alliance of Albanians party, which only a year ago was bribed by Ahmeti to join his Government and support his coalition with SDSM. Ahmeti was planning to further solidify the coalition with SDSM by submitting joint lists of candidates for Parliament, which would help cover up SDSM’s weakness among ethnic Macedonians. Part of the deal was that the two parties nominate a joint presidential candidate in the dual election, and that he’s chosen by SDSM and supported by DUI. But today, the Albanian opposition bloc said that they will nominate Alliance leader Arben Taravari for President. This guarantees that DUI will lose a good portion of its more nationalist voters, who will prefer to vote for an Albanian candidate over an ethnic Macedonian nominated by SDSM. Yesterday DUI seems to entertain the idea of nominating Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, who began a PR campaign, bringing children to his office for a televised lecture on diplomacy, but today’s development indicates that DUI is taking the threat from the opposition bloc extremely seriously.

I think that it is good and healthy for the democracy in Macedonia that we have more presidential candidates, giving the citizens more of a choice. I believe that Taravari’s nomination will provoke DUI and they will have to come up with a presidential candidate, which is good, said VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski.

VMRO has said that they don’t fear a joint SDSM – DUI list in the general elections, expecting that both ruling parties will lost many of their voters over this marriage of interest. But now it seems more likely that the SDSM – DUI pre-election coalition is in tatters and the electoral duels will be done separately – VMRO against SDSM and DUI against the united Albanian opposition. This outcome would doom SDSM, which trails badly in the polls behind VMRO, while the competition on the Albanian side will be more even.