Elections in Skopje: Zoran Zaev wins elections

Former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s ruling Social Democratic Party (SDSM) won the parliamentary elections, narrowly beating Christian Mickoski’s right-wing opposition VMRO-DPMNE.

This victory marks the shielding of the Prespa Agreement, which even under other circumstances could not be officially annulled, but there is no doubt that it would degenerate. Brussels welcomed the results with relief.

Voting may have gone smoothly in the neighboring country, but the turnout was disappointing. The participation rate was recorded at 50.84%. In the previous parliamentary elections in December 2016, the turnout reached 67%. The registered voters of amount to 1.8 million. Voting lasted from 07:00 local time until 21:00 local time.

The State Election Commission announced that SDSM gets 36.13%, while VMRO-DPMNE 34.65%. Among the Albanian minority parties, Ali Ahmeti’s co-government DUI leads with 11.57%. This is followed by the opposition “Alliance for Albanians” by Ziyaddin Sela with a percentage of 8.79%. The distribution of the 120 seats of the new Parliament of the country will be announced later today, Thursday.

The new parliament also includes the nationalist left-wing party “Levica” (Left) and the “Democratic Party of Albanians” (DPA), which are estimated to get one seat each.

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