Bilal Kasami, leader of the growing Albanian opposition party BESA and Mayor of Tetovo, conditioned his support for the proposed changes to the Constitution with new elections. The SDSM – DUI coalition is having serious difficulties finding the 81 votes it needs to add the Bulgarian nation in the preamble of the Constitution and was counting that BESA will support this proposal unconditionally. But Kasami is joining the VMRO-DPMNE call for early elections.

If changing the Constitution and adding the Bulgarians in it is priority for the Government, then we must make compromise for early elections. I think that if there is will to solve the problems in the EU integrations, in the economy and the energy and the poor management of institutions, I hope we can agree on constitutional change and elections, Kasami said.

He added that the elections should take place in spring. A recent IRI poll showed VMRO leading SDSM almost 2:1 and BESA holding its own against DUI, indicating that the current coalition is headed for certain defeat.