A news site is reporting that Prime Minister Zoran Zaev dismissed nine heads of local branches of his SDSM party. The IPortal did not name the officials, but is reporting that this was done on the initiative of Deputy Prime Minister Ljupco Nikolovski, whose official duty is to “fight corruption”.

According to comments from party officials, the reasons for the dismissal fall short of corruption, and include broad allegations such as “unsatisfactory committment to the job” and “acting counterr to social-democratic values”. Zaev’s party has faced dozens of corruption scandals, mostly originating from its head and his inner circle.