Teuta Arifi

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.

Teams led by the vice-presidents of the Social Democratic Union, SDSM, and the Democratic Union for integration, DUI, met on Monday in Skopje to resume talks on forming an opposition-led government in Macedonia.

After the talks with the SDSM, DUI vice-president Teuta Arifi briefly told media that they had been "constructive" and would continue.

The Democratic Union for Integration, DUI - the ethnic Albanian party with the most MPs in parlliament - has sent out conflicting signals about joining a new government coalition led by former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, the leader of the VMRO DPMNE.

Macedonia's Environment Inspectorate has proposed closing an important factory in the country, which contributes 1 per cent of Macedonia's GDP, following its failure to meet Monday's deadline to install air filters.