Sefer Tahiri, a political analyst with a Ph.D. in communication sciences, believes that the outcome of the local elections in North Macedonia was a “major defeat for LSDM”, but neither a triumph for VMRO-DPMNE.

“LSDM has lost 200,000 people from its electorate, and it is the first time that this happens. It lost a lot of votes in the 2013 parliamentary polls, but the figure has never been this high”, he said on Open Balkan.

The analyst declared that North Macedonia still has a “political system which bears too few differences between the party and the state”, and this affected Zaev’s loss.

“The government came in power with big promises and people had high expectations for the justice system, market economy, and non-intervention of the state in business affairs”, said Tahiri.

According to him, in 2017 LSDM had another special mission to fulfill, joining NATO and the EU.

Some of the candidates that raced in the local polls fell victim to central power as many voted against LSDM and Zaev, explained Tahiri.

Speaking about Albanian parties, the analyst said that the Democratic Union for Integration had a solid base of ethnic Albanian voters, but its victory wanes as the opposition was able to win in Gostivar and Tetova.

“I think this has to do with the candidates that BDI has been recycling for about two decades”, he said.