News sites are reporting that the leadership of the ruling SDSM party has decided to install Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski as Interim Prime Minister on January 3rd.

Replacing Zaev with an interim Government leader is one of the main provisions of the 100 days rule, which is meant to stop abuse of Government institutions by the ruling party 100 days before the elections. The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party is supposed to nominate an Interim Interior Minister in Spasovski’s place.

Spasovski was seen as the certain SDSM candidate for Interim Prime Minister mainly due to his loyalty to Zaev, but Zaev recently announced that Labour and Welfare Minister Mila Carovska could also take up this position. Now the pro-Government Lokalno news site reports that the party has reached the decision and will have Spasovski replace Zaev, while Vladimir Pivovarov or Mile Zecevik will be appointed as deputies to the VMRO nominated Interim Interior Minister.

SDSM is going through a major intra-party dispute between its appointees in the security services and the judiciary, which has contributed to the Racket scandal. Control over the police and the judiciary were key to SDSM’s power grab.