In the first round of polls for the Macedonian municipal elections, the greatest number of communes was won by candidates of VMRO-DPMNE – the Macedonian opposition party, led in the past by Nikola Gruevski and is now under the leadership of Hristijan Mickoski.

This party made a strong comeback by claiming victory in some of the largest communes, which had been won by LSDM in 2017.

Communes won by VMRO-DPMNE in the first round:

Aerodrom

Butel

Gjorçe Petrov

Gazi Babe

Kisella Vode

Novaci

Shtip

Gradsko

Bosillova

Veles

Vinica

Zernovce

Ilinden

Jegunovc

Kavadar

Karbnc

Mogilla

Negotina

Petrovec

Prilep

Sopishte

Sveti Nikole

In addition, the ruling party – the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia – has only been able to claim victory in 9 smaller communes.

Communes won by LSDM in the first round:

Berova

Bogdanca

Vallandova

Dellçeve

Dojran

Kriva Pallanke

Krivogashtan

Krusheve

Strumice

In terms of the ethnic Albanian parties, the only one that came out of the first round successful was the Democratic Unity for Integration (BDI), which claimed victory in the small communes of Likova, Pllasnica and Saraj.

Communes won by BDI after first round:

Saraj

Likova

Pllasnica

The Albanian opposition – Alliance for Albanians and the Alternative – are in the lead in several communes, but for less than 1% of votes, they weren’t able to seal the results in Gostivar and Diber and are heading to runoffs.

According to data published by KSHZ, the opposition candidate in Gostivar, Arben Taravari, won 49.70% of votes and wasn’t able to claim a win due to only being 76 votes short.

The Albanian opposition is heading to runoffs against BDI in several other urban communes like Struga, Cair and the rural commune of Vrapcisht.

Ethnic Albanian communes heading to runoffs – ruling party vs. opposition:

Gostivar – BDI–AA ASH

Struga – BDI–AA ASH

Çair – BDI–AA ASH

Meanwhile, Albanian candidates are also expected to go head to head in Haracina and Bervenica.