Zoran Zaev held a meeting of his coalition partners on Sunday evening, following the meeting of party leaders when he agreed to the opposition request for early elections in April 2020. Zaev asked the coalition partners, some of whom like Tito Petkovski’s NSDP were publicly opposed to early elections, to support him in the coming campaign and to implement as much of the old program until the vote.

There is enough time to do what has to be done in the six months before the elections. We are focused on serving the citizens. We are the leaders who presented that the Republic of “North” Macedonia is on the right path and were recognized as such by the European Union, the United States and the entire democratic world, Zaev said following the meeting.

He insisted that his party has the lead, despite several recent polls showing him well behind VMRO-DPMNE. Many of Zaev’s coalition partners were visibly uncomfortable while he was announcing that the coalition will be going to the polls.

Zaev acknowledged that he asked that the elections are held as soon as possible, mainly in December 2019. This would’ve undermined the 100 days rule – a period before the vote in which he needs to resign and the opposition should run the Interior Ministry and have veto power over decisions in several other departments, to ensure that Zaev will not abuse the institutions of the state to tip the vote. But, after he was confronted by other leaders, Zaev accepted to honor the 100 days rule in full, and will be resigning on January 3rd, to allow a technical Government to be set up before the vote.