SDSM party holds its Central Committee this evening as the ruling party is set to decide which of its officials it will offer as sacrifice, after Prime Minister Zoran Zaev promised a purge of his most corrupt and incompetent underlings.

Rumors are flying high, and Zaev had visible difficulty to get his main coalition partner Ali Ahmeti to agree to sacrifice some of his own ministers, and ministers close to the Radmila Sekerinska led wing of SDSM are also reluctant to go.

One of the potential changes raised by the TV21 station, seen as close to DUI, is the removal of SDSM Secretary General and chief personnel officer Aleksandar Kirakovski and his replacement with Zaev uber loyalist Ljupco Nikoloski. Kiracovski is in charge of distributing public sector jobs to SDSM party supporters, and was frequently in the news for abusing this position to distribute well paid jobs to his close relatives. Kiracovski also led the presidential campaign of Stevo Pendarovski, during which the SDSM – DUI candidate lost about 2/5 of the votes the coalition won in 2017, and was reduced to asking for support from the ethnic Albanian opposition.

Nikolovski would have to resign as Agriculture Minister to stand in for Kiracovski.