Maksim Dimitrievski, the Mayor of Kumanovo who broke with his SDSM party to run an independent re-election campaign, declared victory. DImitrievski narrowly won against SDSM candidate Oliver Ilievski in the first round, and is cruising to easy re-election with the help of the third ranked VMRO-DPMNE party in what was supposed to be an easy SDSM win.

Dimitrivski shared projections from the State Electoral Commission showing him beating Ilievski by over a 1,000 votes and posted a video of the on-going celebrations in his headquarters.

He faced open police pressure on his personally and on his supporters, which intensified after the first round.