North Macedonia Postpones April Polls Over Pandemic

The heads of North Macedonia's main political parties met at the presidential palace in Skopje on Tuesday and agreed to postpone the early elections, which were originally slated for April 12.

The modalities for the postponement and a new election date have yet to be determined, however.

"We authorised the president, [Stevo] Pendarovski, to summon a group of experts and to find the legal and moral modalities for the postponement of the elections, and for their rescheduling," the head of the main ruling Social Democrats, Zoran Zaev, told reporters.

"I believe that the consensus we've reached is a serious message to all," Zaev said after the meeting, which lasted for more than three hours.

He added that he hopes a state of emergency will soon be declared in the country, which currently has 26 coronavirus infections.

But the head of the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party, Hristijan Mickovski, told reporters that his party will keep insisting on a higher level of alert and the imposition of a so-called 'state of crisis' for 30 days.

"But the experts should have a say on how to implement this," Mickoski said.

Bilall Kasami, the head of the BESA movement, which has two MPs in parliament, said that the decision to postpone the elections was reached "unanimously" but that a new date "will be up to the legal experts to assess".

Ziadin Sella from the Alliance for Albanians said that the people's health must now take priority over the elections.

The head of the small Democratic Party of Albanians, Menduh Thaci, left the meeting early however, saying there was nothing for him to do there because "the decisions have already been made, and we as Albanian political parties only serve as decoration".

As the number of...