The BESA party will meet today to discuss whether it wants to remain as part of the SDSM – DUI led coalition, as calls from within the Erdoganist party grow for them to leave. BESA has a growing dispute with DUI as they both fight for the same ethnic Albanian votes.

In the local elections, BESA leader Bilal Kasami beat DUI candidate Teuta Arifi in the bitter contest for Mayor of Tetovo – Macedonia’s largest majority Albanian city. And now a new test is coming, as DUI pushed for a re-vote in the municipality of Zelino. The BESA candidate was elected Mayor by just 69 votes, but DUI lodged protests claiming that in one polling station the number of citizens are proven to have voted does not match the number of ballots, and that some voted with invalid documents. A do-over vote could reverse the outcome of the elections and give DUI the Zelino city hall.

BESA is counter-suing to prevent the new vote, and is also warning SDSM that if the race does not go their way, they may leave the coalition. BESA ran together with SDSM, with joint party lists, in 2020, and currently has four seats in Parliament. This will be reduced to three once Kasami is sworn in as Mayor of Tetovo, but three are enough to topple the Government that only has 62 seats in the 120 seat Parliament.

The party board will decide. If you ask me, personally I’m in favor of leaving the majority, said Agriculture Minister Arijanit Hoxha, who is the only BESA member of Government. In a social media comment he said that the party “was born in Zelino” and that this is a place over which the Government can collapse.

Zaev’s coalition partners are trying to extract more concessions from him for remaining in the Government, as SDSM suffered serious losses in the elections, while BESA made major gains with the race in Tetovo and others, like LDP and DOM, also proved they are worth enough votes to damage SDSM.