{"id":23232,"date":"2021-10-20T22:57:14","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T20:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=23232"},"modified":"2021-10-20T22:59:41","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T20:59:41","slug":"osmani-bdi-sees-improvement-since-2017-sure-victory-in-tetovo-runoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/osmani-bdi-sees-improvement-since-2017-sure-victory-in-tetovo-runoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Osmani: BDI sees improvement since 2017; sure victory in Tetovo runoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Macedonia\u2019s foreign minister, Bujar Osmani was invited to speak about the recent local elections in his country, by \u2018Balkan Talks\u2019 show host, Franko Egro.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of his video conference call, Osmani said that the Democratic Union (BDI) has seen a definite improvement in these elections by confirming that it ranks first amongst ethnic Albanian parties in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve won 124 thousand votes for our candidates and around 104 thousand votes for commune councils. This is a fundamental growth compared to the 2017 results. BDI is now confirmed as the party that\u2019s supported by the majority of Albanians [in North Macedonia],\u201d \u2013 said Osmani.<\/p>\n

In regards to the results in the commune of Tetovo, where BDI has established its party\u2019s central headquarters, Osmani said that the presence of several candidates is what made victory more difficult to achieve during the first voting round.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going into the second round with a bigger advantage of around 11 thousand votes, compared to the second candidate. We are the definite winners in Tetovo,\u201d \u2013 said N. Macedonia\u2019s foreign minister.<\/p>\n

When asked about the party\u2019s loss of over 8 000 votes in the commune of Kercova, Osmani justified it by saying that \u201cthere was a division of the votes seeing that there were two Albanian candidates and one Macedonian\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the second round of polls, where there will be a face-off between BDI and VMRO-DPMNE, Osmani said that the Coalition for Albanians will support the Macedonian candidate. The same thing, he said, will happen in both Vrapcishte and Haracine.<\/p>\n

\u201cBDI never puts national interests on the line, when it comes to our party interests or electoral calculations,\u201d \u2013 said Osmani, adding that when it comes to Albanian parties in North Macedonia, having more than two isn\u2019t ideal because it\u2019s brought about division amongst Albanians, along with making them weaker and more fragmentized.<\/p>\n

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