After the disastrous first round of the elections, SDSM is reduced to fighting for dear life in the run-off races in Skopje, Bitola, Kumanovo and Ohrid, as well as Centar and Karpos – after all other major cities and Skopje municipalities were lost in the first round.

And just as the ruling party was employing bribery and threats ahead of the first round, they are now concentrating their efforts on the few remaining races. VMRO-DPMNE informed that yesterday SDSM activists were out in force in Bitola, distributing flour to families whose votes they are trying to buy for the second round. VMRO shared a video showing people unloading sacks of flour from a truck.

SDSM candidate Hristo Kondovski is trying to buy the voters of Bitola, the conservative party warned.

VMRO candidate Toni Konjanovski won in the first round in Bitola by 2,000 votes, after VMRO lost the city by 14,000 votes – an almost 2:1 ratio – in 2017. Under SDSM rule, the city was subjected to major corruption on the part of SDSM as the ruling Zaev family moved in to take over coal digging contracts in the large REK Bitola coal plant, and attacked those who warned about their rampant corruption.

Vice Zaev denies ordering the torching of an activist’s car, says he and his family are “honest Macedonians”