The nomination of former journalist Safet Bisevac as candidate for VMRO-DPMNE at the coming elections sparked a heated reaction in the public, mostly because Bisevac was member of Parliament for SDSM between 2011 and 2014.

The former A1 TV journalist was nominated by SDSM during the early 2011 elections that were sparked by the closure of the large TV station, whose owner Velija Ramkovski was charged with massive fraud and tax evasion. Bisevac was not re-nominated by SDSM since and has distanced from the party but during his initial term in the Parliament he was an outspoken critic of VMRO-DPMNE and his nomination yesterday came as a surprise to many.

Both major parties have courted the vote of the Bosniak community who Bisevac belongs to. SDSM are also nominating a Bosniak who switched party lines – Zekir Ramcilovic was elected on the VMRO ticket in 2016, but joined the “Gang of eight” bribed and blackmailed members of Parliament who voted for the imposed name change. Businessman Sead Kocan, who is reportedly close to Ramcilovic, was one of the main targets of the SDSM led campaign of persecution of the opposition and it is believed that Ramcilovic’s change of party lines is linked to securing more lenient prison terms for Kocan.

But back to the nomination of Bisevac, the Magazin news site raises another possible explanation for his appointment, other than the renewed VMRO outreach to the Bosniak community, which may have contributed to the virulent attacks on his nomination through the social media today.

One of the issues why SDSM officials are wary of Bisevac is that he has intimate knowledge of their way of operating, the divided factions within the party and how they manage a number of pro-Zaev journalists he was close to. It’s possible that Safet Bisevac will speak out on these issues during the campaign, putting Zoran Zaev, Radmila Sekerinska and their PR organizers Marjan Zabrcanec and Robert Popovski in the hot seat. There is a lot the public doesn’t know about the way the Colored Revolution activists were manipulated by SDSM, Magazin reports.