A number of candidates that SDSM is nominating in the local elections are businessmen from companies who have received major contracts with the city halls they are running for, or with the SDSM led Government.

Fokus reports that one of them is Aleksandar Filipovski – Cande, running for Mayor of Ohrid. He comes from a “red bourgeoisie” family – his father and uncles were ministers and top officials in SDSM governments and later used their political connections to amass wealth through contracting. Their family company Tehnokomerc frequently wins contracts to procure trucks for public institutions and even worked in the notoriously corrupt REK Bitola coal mine contracts.

Also in Bitola, SDSM removed their incumbent Mayor Natasa Petrovska from the race and are nominating the actual power behind the seat – businessman Hristo Kondovski, who works extensively with the Government and the Bitola coal mine and power plant, as well as on dam construction.