Future Coalition Partners Want to Solve Early Mayoral Elections Issue

Among the first items that will be on the agenda of the new composition of Parliament will be legal changes to introduce new ministries and transform existing ones.

However, what the future coalition partners want to solve as far as the first matters are concerned is also avoiding early local elections for mayors, Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi says in an interview with RFE Macedonian, which will be published on 2 June.

According to the law, early mayoral elections are not organised only if the regular ones are held within six months. The next regular local elections will take place in 2025.

However, so far, there is no clear picture of what type of legal changes would be made.

Also, they would require a two-thirds majority. According to the Local Self-Government Law, it is now foreseen that a municipality’s council will be required to elect an acting mayor from its own ranks.

Blerim Bexheti has left the position of Saraj Mayor to become an MP, while early elections, according to the law, will be required also in Aerodrom and Gostivar if VMRO-DPMNE’s Timco Mucunski and VLEN’s Arben Taravari, respectively, become ministers, as it is being speculated.

However, Taravari said on Thursday that he would not accept the ministerial position if that meant Gostivar’s residents would need to vote twice in local elections in a period lasting less than one year.