The State Electoral Commission (SEC) decided today that the ruling SDSM party did not violate electoral rules with the early start to its campaign. SDSM has been holding campaign events and even overt bribery of voters in poor districts across Macedonia, for months, but the SEC did not accept the complaints from other participants in the elections.

Opposition parties VMRO-DPMNE and Levica listed numerous examples of SDSM officials campaigning in Skopje, Kavadarci, Bitola, Gostivar… But SEC President Oliver Derkoski said that the complaints were largely based on social media posts by SDSM activists and officials, and there was a dispute over the exact time and place for some of them.