After Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said that he would seek the consent of the parties for the local elections in the country to be held on October 31, in order to avoid coinciding with the census, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE reacted that the Prime Minister on his own, without consulting others parties, demanded a postponement of the local election date from mid-October and demanded that the election be held on 17 October. On the other hand, DUI informed that any date for holding the elections is acceptable for them.

We have a reason for postponing the elections, and that is certainly the census that will be conducted in September, and we do not want the campaign to coincide with it, and of course the reason for its postponement is the pandemic. So if that is not changed by law, the elections should be by October 17, and it will coincide with the census campaign. The proposal to the parties is the date to be October 31, if they agree and it will be incorporated in the Electoral Code, said Zaev.

VMRO-DPMNE stressed that Zaev “on his own without consulting the other parties” is seeking a postponement of the date of the local elections from mid-October.

This is contrary to the current practice, but also a violation of the Constitution where it is clearly stated that the mandate of the mayors expires before the date that Zaev offers as a possible date for the local elections. The excuse that the census coincides with the campaign is weak, because the census can be postponed to November and thus the Constitution will be respected. By the way, SDSM and Zaev until a few days ago convinced the public that the local elections and the census are processes that can run in parallel without any problems, for now Zaev to say something completely different, VMRO-DPMNE reacted.