Repeated parliamentary elections in seven electoral divisions of North Macedonia will be held on Wednesday, May 22, the country’s electoral court decided, due to irregularities that occurred in the parliamentary elections held in the country on May 8..

It is speculated that these repeat elections may result in a change in two seats, to the detriment of the largest Albanian party, DUI.

DUI leader Ali Ahmeti accused VMRO-DPMNE today and the outgoing ruling Social Democratic Party (SDSM) that they are instigating these re-elections in order to prevent the dominance of the DUI as the second largest political faction in North Macedonia and warned that doing so could have an impact on international relations in the country.

“This (including the rerun of the elections) is being done by the two largest parties of Macedonian nationality, whose policies, unfortunately, we fear will have an impact on international relations, which we do not want,” noted Ali Ahmeti.

In the parliamentary elections on May 8, VMRO-DPMNE came first, occupying 58 of the 120 seats in the Parliament. Second with 19 seats came DUI, while only third, with 18 seats came SDSM.

The coalition of four opposition Albanian parties with the name “Axizia” emerged fourth with 13 seats, while six seats were secured by the nationalist, pro-Russian party “Left” and the newly formed party “Xero” of its mayor KumanovoMaxim Dmitrievsky.

The leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Christian Mickoski, started a few days ago negotiations with the Albanian coalition “Worth” to form a government, which provokes strong reactions from the DUI, which claims that as the first among the Albanian parties, it should to participate in the new government and not the opposition Albanian coalition. An Albanian party always participates in all the governments of North Macedonia, among other things to maintain the fragile international balance in the country. Albanians make up 25% of the country’s population.

Christian Mickoski has ruled out any post-election cooperation with DUI, which for the last 20 years has participated in all the coalition governments of the country.

The new Parliament of North Macedonia must be formed into a House no later than 20 days after the completion of the electoral process, i.e. by June 11 (due to the repeat vote on May 22). Subsequently, in a period of 10 days, the new president of the Republic, Gordana Silianovska, will deliver the order of formation to the leader of the party that came first in the elections (to the president of VMRO-DPMNE, Christian Mickoski), who will have 20 days at his disposal in order to to submit to the Parliament the program of the new government and request a vote of confidence.