VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski proposed that the coming municipal elections are held in one round – in order to save money but also protect the voters from the coronavirus.

Macedonia elects municipal council members in the first round of voting, but electing a mayor often requires a second round of voting two weeks later, due to the high requirement to win the seat outright in the first round. Mickoski also endorsed the idea of open lists, which would allow voters to support a party list of candidates, but also to support individual candidates on the list, unlike the current model where the party leadership can determine who gets the winning positions on the list.

We support preferential lists of council members and a British styled first past the post model for the mayors. It can be applied for the first time in the municipal elections. I see no reason for a second round of voting, unless to allow the Government to enhance its blackmail of voters. Having a second round would just amount to spending public funds at a time of a pandemic, Mickoski said.

The elections are supposed to take place in October 2021. SDSM currently dominates the ethnic Macedonian majority municipalities, as the 2017 elections took place at the height of political repression by the Zaev regime.