SDSM and DUI reach Deal on joint Presidential candidate

At their meeting on Wednesday, PM and SDSM leader Zoran Zaev and DUI leader Ali Ahmeti agreed on a joint candidate for the presidential race. The name will be announced on Friday. “We carried out an essential analysis, decided that we should set a standard in the country. Though there were attempts for that in the past, too, they weren’t successful,” Ahmeti said after the one-hour meeting. As the DUI leader added, they want to send a message to citizens that “we have sufficiently mature political parties, but also a society so that a joint decision on President of the country is made”. In the next days, the consultations with the other parties from the Albanian bloc regarding a joint candidate will continue, according to him. The presidential race was the topic also at Wednesday’s meeting between Zaev and the leader of the Democratic Party of Turks in Macedonia, Beycan Ilyas. There is a mutual wish for joint participation in the presidential elections, they assessed. Zaev and Ilyas added that it’s of exceptional importance for a joint candidate to be found that would promote unity, equality and stability of the country. Ilyas said his party would get actively involved in the election campaign, especially in terms of promoting the presidential candidate among the Turksih community.