A Parliament Committee will discuss a new draft bill that could destabilize the SDSM – DUI coalition. It would abolish the six electoral districts and replace them with a single district.

Albanian parties like DUI are bitterly opposed, since they benefit from the nominally large number of voters in the 6th electoral district, which in reality, due to its high emigration rate, has far less voters than the other five districts. This means that DUI and other parties that win seats in the 6th district need less votes to win a seat compared to the other districts, especially compared to fully ethnic Macedonian districts 3 and 4, where the actual number of residents and voters better matches the electoral rolls. Albanian parties would lose up to half a dozen seats under this model, and large parties like SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE would also be affected.

Big winners would be small parties such as Levica, DS, DOM, LDP, VMRO-NP… Most of them are currently allied with SDSM and insist that this change is adopted, so they would be able to compete independently in the next elections, without needed to secure a coalition with a large party to win seats. LDP, DOM and DS have enough seats in Parliament to bring down the Kovacevski Government if they insist on this change. VMRO-DPMNE supports the proposal in an attempt to peel these small coalition partners from SDSM.

Over 90 members of Parliament support this change. IT is possible that it is adopted, but it is also possible that someone blocks it, whether it is DUI or some other party. We call for consultations, let’s see the arguments for and against. I expect that most representatives will be in favor, said DS party leader Pavle Trajanov.