Voting in the mayoral run-off in Skopje, a crucial race on which Zoran Zaev staked his position as Prime Minister, was marked by the higher turnout across the city, but collapse of turnout in Saraj. The majority Albanian area contributed almost 6,000 votes to SDSM candidate Petre Silegov, who eventually lost the races in majority Macedonian areas against Danela Arsovska for a losing margin of 8,000 votes in total.

Today, Saraj was by far the worst turnout municipality in Macedonia, which makes Silegov’s odds for victory all but impossible. But at the end of the voting, in just one and a half hours, turnout jumped by six percent, from 22.5 to 28.5 percent, or almost 2,000 votes. This indicates ballot stuffing – which was feared all day, as SDSM gets more desperate and expects its DUI coalition partner to deliver the Albanian votes.

Observers from the two ruling parties attacked an observer from the Axios group in the village of Bojane, in what became one of the main incidents on election day.

This is Saraj, no-one can save youy here, the attackers told the observer.

It’s unclear whether the late evening surge in Saraj is legitimate, or if it could affect the final outcome.