DS party leader Pavle Trajanov predicts that the large parties like VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM will lose about a dozen MPs if the proposal to form a single electoral district is accepted.

The current division of the electorate in six districts harms smaller parties like DS, who are forced to join VMRO or SDSM in coalitions – a move that DS has regularly done, opportunistically switching sides. But now, VMRO proposes that votes are cast in a single district, which will help smaller parties group their votes and win seats on their own. This will especially harm ethnic Albanian parties, who count on the 20 seats awarded in the emigration heavy 6th district to win seats with a lower number of votes than typical Macedonian parties.

The 25 smaller parties bring about 100,000 votes to a larger party. And they are used only to gather votes, once the election is over they are exclude from any serious decision making, Trajanov said.

Trajanov said that he hopes VMRO is sincere in its intention to reform the electoral model, and that it’s not just a ploy to get SDSM’s smaller partners to abandon the coalition.