After calling for the elections to be postponed, the SDSM party representatives in the State Electoral Commission walked back their proposal later today.

The announcement was made this morning, when the SEC held a briefing during which the two SDSM representatives Boris Kondarko and Janaki Vitanovski pointed to the huge mobilization effort that is required for the April 12 elections, which may endanger the participants and the voters. SEC President Oliver Derkovski, who is nominated by VMRO-DPMNE, said that the decision will have to be made by the relevant authorities and called for a decision to be made with a cool head.

But later this afternoon, Vitanovski and Kondarko were quoted as saying that the SEC is not in charge of moving the date of the elections. Lider.mk quotes SEC sources saying that the two SDSM members are now calling for the elections to be held as planned. The SEC even sent out a press release denying reports that the Commission wants to see the elections postponed.

Seems that the SDSM leadership would like to push ahead with the vote. They expect that turnout would be very low if the elections are held in April and that could help them as they are down in the polls, Lider reports.

VMRO-DPMNE representatives told Lider that the elections are “the last of our concerns” as the country faces the virus.