Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi said that he discussed the dissolution of Parliament with his office and was told that the latest Parliament can dissolve is February 16. This, Xhaferi said, would allow the elections to still be held on April 12.

Parliament is supposed to dissolve on February 12, two months ahead of the elections. Xhaferi already said that postponing the dissolution while still maintaining the same election date would risk problems if anythings goes wrong in the preparation of the elections. But Zoran Zaev from the ruling SDSM party insists that a new law on state prosecutors, tailor made to protect him from criminal scrutiny, is adopted before Parliament is dissolved. Zaev is working to bribe and blackmail members of Parliament to get to 81 votes without VMRO-DPMNE, but so far, with Albanian parties and even some of the previously bribable “gang of eight” seemingly hard to get, his odds don’t look good at the moment. Postponing the elections by four days would give a little more time to get the votes he desperately needs.