A major moment in the general elections is that the Albanian opposition bloc VLEN is keeping close behind the ruling Albanian party DUI, even after DUI formed a coalition with a number of ethnic minority parties to try to bolster its results.

At the national level, DUI has over 101,000 votes with 67 percent of the total counted, and VLEN has 82,000. VLEN is actually beating DUI in the 1st electoral district, with 17,400 votes against 15,600. This owes to the strong showing of the Albanian opposition in the Cair district in central Skopje. VLEN also did well in the 6th electoral district, in the north-west, where Albanian parties win the majority of their votes. There VLEN has 38,100 votes, against 42,726 for DUI, with 79 percent of the total counted. VLEN leaders are mayors of Gostivar and Tetovo, and the coalition is narrowly beating DUI in Tetovo, and narrowly losing in Gostivar, leaving DUI to make up the margin of victory in Kicevo, where they have total control over the Albanian vote.

DUI insists that they will win the Albanian vote, but with their narrower than expected margin of victory, they could put themselves in danger of being left in the opposition, as VMRO-DPMNE, the absolute winners of the elections, have long announced. DUI’s decision to team up with parties representing ethnic Roma, Turks and Bosniaks will help them edge out VLEN but also exposes them to attacks that the actual ethnic Albanian vote is essentially tied, and that VLEN represents as many Albanians, if not more, than DUI does.