Teuta Arifi from DUI, who was Mayor of Tetovo since 2013, acknowledged defeat against the BESA party leader Bilal Kasami.

Tetovo will be led by our opposing candidate. I congratulate Bilal Kasami on his victory, Arifi said, as Kasami’s supproters began celebrating.

Arifi’s candidacy was badly affected by both her long standing failure to provide basic services in the growing city, and the disaster on September 8th, when 14 patients died in the fire in the improvised Covid hospital in the city.

Kasami narrowly lost the first round but counted on support from the support of opposition Albanian parties. The race caused a major dividing line in Zaev’s coalition, where both BESA and DUI are crucial coalition partners. With the apparent defeat in Gostivar, DUI will be out of office in the two largest majority ethnic Albanian cities in Macedonia.