Besides the presidential elections, the Ohrid mayoral race is an important test case for the Zoran Zaev Government. It won the city in 2017, like most of other municipalities, but as Mayor Jovan Stojanovski died of heart attack, and new elections were called, the city is an important bellwether for the approval of the Government, the name change it is trying to impose on the country, and now also inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations.

The ruling party seems to be pulling all stops to win votes for its candidate Konstantin Georgievski to become Mayor of the religious and cultural capital of Macedonia. Despite the ban on extra-ordinary public work during the election campaign, which is meant to prevent use of public funds to win votes, municipal authorities were seen paving a street in the village of Leskoec in the dead of the night. Local news site Ohrid24 lived up to its name and snapped the picture of the municipal construction machines crew working long after the sun has set.

Why such hurry? You could not complete the street in the past year and a half, so you have to do it now?, the site asked Georgievski.

Opposition parties are asking the State Electoral Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission to look into this and other cases of abuse of public funds to bolster the campaign of the ruling candidate.