SDSM’s Executive Board is holding a session on Monday, where the competent committees are set to present the regulations and timeline for the upcoming early intra-party elections for the party’s president and leadership, along with organizing a congress.

“Today, we’re convening the Executive Board meeting, which essentially extends last week’s session. The working groups tasked with organizing the congress are expected to come with concrete schedules,” Dimitar Kovachevski said at the beginning of the session. Kovachevski resigned from the leadership position last week following the defeat in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

When asked whether he will run for a new term as party president, Kovachevski replied that he will not.

Sanja Lukarevska, who resigned from her position as deputy president of the party, expects that the meeting will determine the path forward in terms of establishing the upcoming steps, which include holding the Central Board, a congress, and initiating the procedure for nominating the president of SDSM.

In response to a question about his potential candidacy for the party’s top position, Fatmir Bytyqi, who recently stepped down as vice president of SDSM, stated that it’s premature to make such a decision.

Petre Shilegov also considers it premature to discuss candidacy, emphasizing that the priority is to tackle the retrograde processes already underway in society.

In response to a journalist’s question, Parliament Speaker and SDSM member Jovan Mitreski stated before the session that he has no intention of running for the position of party president.

Current Defense Minister Slavjanka Petrovska and Jovan Despotovski, who heads the Directorate for Technological Industrial Development Zones, are considering running for the party’s leadership. The names of Venko Filipche and Stefan Bogoev are also circulating in the media as potential candidates for the leadership of SDSM.

SDSM leader Dimitar Kovachevski officially resigned from the post of party president on May 22 at the party’s Executive Board session. He has requested that the party convene a congress and organize internal elections.

At its session, SDSM’s Executive Board directed the party’s Central Election Commission to propose deadlines for holding direct intra-party elections in June.

“Since, in line with the Statute, the elected Central Election Commission still has a mandate, it will implement the procedure for new direct intra-party leadership elections in the same composition. The Executive Board obliged the Central Election Commission to propose a rulebook with deadlines for the holding of intra-party elections in June, in a transparent and democratic procedure,” SDSM said in a press release.

“The members of the Executive Board, as well as the members of the SDSM leadership, the deputy leader, the vice presidents, secretary general, organizational secretary, and secretary for international cooperation, have resigned from their posts. At the same time, the members of the Central Board are being urged to follow the example as a moral act of responsibility,” the press release said.