Bozinovski: VMRO-DPMNE the absolute winner of local elections, VLEN achieved better results than expected

Political analyst Vladimir Bozinovski, commenting on the results of the local elections in North Macedonia, stated that VMRO-DPMNE confirmed its rating and the trust of the citizens by winning the majority of municipalities. According to him, the party now controls almost 50 municipalities, including the City of Skopje, which makes them, as he adds, the absolute winners of the elections.

“I think VMRO-DPMNE managed to confirm the rating and the trust it enjoys among citizens, which it earned in last year’s parliamentary elections, and they won the majority of municipalities. They have 33 municipalities, if I’m not mistaken, already in the first round, and now they will most likely end up with around 50 municipalities in total, including the City of Skopje, which makes them the absolute winners of these elections,” Bozinovski told Kosovo Online.

As for surprises, he pointed out that there were no major unexpected results, but in some municipalities, the outcome was decided by a very small number of votes.

“For example, in the municipality of Zrnovci, SDSM won by 11 votes, while in Probishtip, VMRO won by 25 votes. In Struga, according to the latest information, the independent candidate Mendi Cura won by 400 votes, which is a small margin considering that Struga is a large municipality and there was also a lot of tension there. In the municipality of Karpos, the VMRO-DPMNE candidate will most likely win by around 1,000 votes,” the analyst explained.

Speaking about the parties from the Albanian political bloc, Bozinovski believes that VLEN achieved a better result than expected.

“First, they won mayoral seats in a larger number of municipalities, and second, in almost all major municipalities where they competed against DUI, they managed to win. Even in Struga, where the independent candidate supported by VLEN won by about 400 votes more,” the analyst noted.