Macedonia's Ruling Party Celebrates Local Election Victory

Macedonia's ruling Social Democrats, SDSM, celebrated a convincing victory Sunday night during the first round of local elections, widely regarded as a key test of the new government's popularity.

SDSM, which formed a government in May, won leads in more than half of Macedonia's 81 municipalities, taking most of the big urban centres. Its crowning victory was winning the capital Skopje - the main prize in the local elections.

The ruling party celebrated decisive victories over its main opposition - the right-wing VMRO-DPMNE party - during the first round of the local vote in major towns such as Bitola, Veles, Kumanovo, Ohrid and Strumica. However, it also won decisively in most of the smaller towns and rural areas too.

SDSM has seen a huge surge in support in recent years. In local elections in 2013, the party won only four mayoral seats. Now, it has the edge on its main rival in the capital Skopje and in most of its municipalities too, including Centar.

However, it is not yet certain whether the ruling party candidate will win the seat of Skopje mayor after only the first round. The second round of voting is expected to take place in two weeks.

"This is how Macedonia looks like when the voting is free, peaceful and without pressures," said Prime Minister and SDSM's president Zoran Zaev at Sunday night's party celebration in Skopje.

VMRO-DPMNE, which was recently ousted from central government after 11 years in power amid far-reaching corruption scandals, previously dominated the localities. The party had 56 mayors in towns and cities across the country. It has seen major losses during these local polls.

The party can now only hope for a narrow lead in the towns of Stip, Kavadarci and Prilep, in the...