Oliver Ilievski, the SDSM party candidate for Mayor of Kumanovo, admitted defeat and congratulated to the incumbent Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski.

I’m grateful to the 19,470 voters who supported me. I congratulate on Maksim Dimitrievski, the independent candidate backed by VMRO-DPMNE, on his 25,470 votes. I wish him a successful term, Ilievski said.

SDSM used their full control of the police to go after Dimitrievski, who split from the party to run as an independent after falling out of favor with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and especially his Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski. VMRO exploited this division in the SDSM dominated city to support Dimitrievski and deny SDSM a major city.