Kumanovo Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski convened a club of veteran local activists of the ruling SDSM party. Dimitrievski was expelled from SDSM by party leader Zoran Zaev after his frequent criticism of Zaev and his decision to run an independent campaign for Mayor, splitting the Kumanovo branch of the party.

But Dimitrievski says he has as much claim to his place in SDSM as Zaev does, and is gathering long time local activists of the party that rallied behind him to support this claim. The split is creating an opening for the VMRO-DPMNE party in the local elections – even though Kumanovo is normally a reliably SDSM town.