The two oppostion ethnic Albanian parties BESA and the Alliance of Albanians, said that they have an agreement in principle to run a joint candidate in the coming presidential elections.

The Bilal Kasami and Ziadin Sela led parties recently jointly pressured Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to accept a number of concessions on Albanian nationalist issues and feel that that has gained them more support among ethnic Albanians than the ruling DUI party, which is dogged by numerous charges of corruption. A potential joint candidate for the two parties could be professor Iliaz Kadriu, reports Makfax.

Fadil Zendeli from BESA said that the agreement was reached in principle, but that the candidate is still not determined. No ethnic Albanian candidate has ever reached the second round of elections, but the support of the Albanian parties is often important in determining which ethnic Macedonian candidate will ultimately win. DUI and its coalition partner SDSM discussed having a joint “consensual” candidate, but the talks appear to have failed and DUI announced it will run its own candidate.