Social Democratic Union of Macedonia

In an address late on Sunday evening, Zoran Zaev said he is resigning from his position as North Macedonia's Prime Minister and as leader of the Social Democrats, after the party's defeat in the capital of Skopje and other important towns to the opposition right-wing VMRO DPMNE party during the election runoffs this weekend.

On the other hand, the independent candidate for the mayor of Skopje, Danela Arsovska, declared victory, and the leading Macedonian opposition party VMRO-DPMNE calls for early parliamentary elections.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, resigned last night after the poor performance of his SDSM party in the second round of local elections, world agencies reported.

VMRO-DPMNE is the absolute winner of yesterday's local elections in the Republic of North Macedonia, according to the latest data announced tonight on the website of the State Election Commission, Macedonian media reported.

He resigned due to the debacle in the second round of local elections.
"I take responsibility for the results of these elections and resign from the Prime Minister and the President of the SDSM," SDSM leader Zoran Zaev said tonight.

The results of the municipal polls have brought the governing Social Democrats' arch-rivals in the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party back into the game - and closer to possibly forming a new government.

North Macedonia's main opposition VMRO DPMNE party declared victory over the centre-left government on Sunday night after polls closed in the local elections, which would mark a striking political comeback after three election defeats to the ruling Social Democrats.

Local elections will be held today in the neighboring Republic of North Macedonia, a BGNES reported.

1,824,864 people have the right to vote. 301 candidates are running for mayor and 10,600 for municipal councilors. Twelve candidates are running for mayor of the capital, Skopje. The second round of elections will take place on October 31.

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.

But he also says that going solo into the forthcoming elections, after previously abandoning the alliance led by the Social Democrats, does not mean the small parties are withdrawing parliamentary support for the current government.

Dimitrovski dismisses talk of a new parliamentary majority led by VMRO DPMNE as an illusion.