Levica

As the political fight to form a new majority escalates ahead of a no-confidence vote, due on Thursday, each MP in North Macedonia's various ethnic Albanian parties feels a kingmaker.

North Macedonia's main opposition VMRO DPMNE party on Monday filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, sticking to its promise to do so unless Zaev resigned by the 2.30pm ultimatum it gave him.

The MP and VMRO DPMNE vice-president Aleksandar Nikolovski confirmed this at a press conference in Skopje.

The forthcoming local elections on October 17 will again be dominated by male mayoral candidates, official data on candidacies that was recently published by the State Electoral Commission reveals.

Out of a total of 298 candidates who will be competing for mayoral seats in the country's 81 municipalities, only 26, or less than nine per cent, are women, the data shows.

An opinion poll published on Monday suggested that the gap between the main ruling VMRO DPMNE and the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM has significantly narrowed while the number of undecided voters who could determine the outcome of the December 11 election is still high.