In a rare win for SDSM, their candidate in Skopje’s Centar district Goran Gerasimovski, declared that he won.

Centar remains in the right hands, we won by 2,000 votes. We begin to work tomorrow to justify your support, Gerasimovski said.

Centar was supposed to be an easy first round win for SDSM, and VMRO-DPMNE nominated Natasa Kotlar as a candidate from a partner party. But given the major red-black wave in the first round, SDSM was forced to defend this downtown part of the city.

SDSM lost all other urban centers in Skopje and most major and mid-sized cities across the country, prompting its leader Zoran Zaev to announce his resignation as Prime Minister and SDSM leader.