Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani said that it is difficult to talk about holding elections at a time when new patients are placed on mechanical ventilation every day. Osmani, who is from the DUI party, was asked about the push by Zoran Zaev to hold “corona elections” in June or early July, hoping that low turnout will help his SDSM party.

I agree that the country and the Government need a political mandate. But if you’ve noticed we declared a moratorium on our DUI election campaigning in March and we haven’t mentioned the elections since then. We have not initiated the latest discussion and we try not to comment on it too much because it is difficult to talk about elections when the clinic is still admitting patients who end up on mechanical ventilation, said Osmani, who is a doctor.

DUI still hasn’t declared a position on what it thinks would be the best date for holding elections, but like the other major parties, it has accepted the request from VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan MIckoski that healthcare officials and the State Electoral Commission make their recommendations and that it will also depend on having a full, proper, international monitoring mission to prevent electoral fraud.