The ruling SDSM party is asking its coalition partner DUI, and the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party to withdraw their amendments on the Electoral Code, which SDSM is trying to push through Parliament without agreement with the other parties.

DUI blocked the law when it submitted nearly 6.000 amendments, which will certainly bog down the debate deep after the scheduled election date in April 2020. VMRO-DPMNE also submitted several hundred amendments to the SDSM proposal to abolish the six electoral districts in favor of a single district. Proportionate voting in a single district will likely favor the smaller, protest parties, and parties representing ethnic minorities at the detriment of the larger parties and the Albanian parties, and SDSM is likely planning to run a number of allied protest parties independently, take a hit on its own list but harm its rivals too, and then reel the smaller parties back in its coalition.

SDSM member of Parliament Aleksandar Kiracovski said that a new committee session will be held mid next week when he will ask DUI and VMRO to withdraw their amendments and unblock the law. The move by DUI caused tensions in their ruling coalition with SDSM.

VMRO insists that it is unacceptable that changes to the Electoral Code are made without agreement of all major parties, especially with just months before the elections. The opposition party said that, if the model is being changed, it wants to see a first past the post system like those used in the US, UK and Canada. DUI, on the other hand, said that it will accept a single district but only if ethnic Albanians are guaranteed 30 seats in Parliament.