Despite public criticism, the Parliament voted today to set the number of deputy speakers to five – one of the historic highs.

Candidates are still not put forward, but it’s expected that various parties will take the seats. The proposal was controversial as the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party called such a high number of deputies to speaker Talat Xhaferi as “unnecessary”. VMRO and the ruling SDSM party were proposing to reduce the numbers, but eventually the proposal was adopted with a slim margin of 60 votes in favor.