Former Defense Minister and SDSM MP Slavjanka Petrovska has withdrawn from the SDSM leadership race one day before the vote. In an official letter to the party’s Central Election Commission, Petrovska stated her desire to protect SDSM from an illegitimate election and requested that her name be removed from the ballot.

“To protect SDSM from an illegitimate election of a leader and avoid being complicit in violating the statute, I am notifying you of my withdrawal from the candidacy for SDSM leader. As this process is unacceptable to me, I ask that my name not be included on the ballot to prevent misleading the voters,” Petrovska wrote.

In her letter, Petrovska mentioned that despite raising numerous irregularities with representatives of the Central Election Commission, she received no response disproving her claims.

“At a meeting yesterday at SDSM’s premises with Central Election Commission members, I voiced serious concerns about the accuracy and legitimacy of the electoral roll and the misuse of personal data of thousands of SDSM members, which continued today. Unfortunately, I did not receive any response that disproves these claims. As a social democrat, I believe in the honesty we owe our comrades, and these founded and confirmed suspicions undermine the legitimacy of these elections and results,” Petrovska stated.

On Friday, Petrovska accused the election process of being unfair, alleging that one candidate had access to the party’s database and misused the personal data of its members. She announced she would not vote in Sunday’s leadership elections and urged other candidates to withdraw from the race.

The remaining candidates for the SDSM leadership are former Health Minister and current MP Venko Filipche, the head of the Free Zones Authority Jovan Despotovski, and the former Deputy Minister of Information Society and Administration, Aleksandar Bajdevski. The party members are scheduled to vote for a new leader on Sunday.