Talat Xhaferi Re-elected as Parliament Speaker

DUI MP Talat Xhaferi has been re-elected by the Parliament of Macedonia as Parliament Speaker (PS) with 62 votes in favour at the continuation of the constitutive session of the new parliamentary assembly on Friday. Xhaferi gained the support from the ruling alliance of SDSM, DUI and DPA, the MPs from VMRO-DPMNE and Levica voted against his nomination as PS and left the session after the voting, while the MPs from Alliance for Albanians and Alternative did not attend the voting for the nomination of new PS. After his re-election, Xhaferi thanked the all MPs, saying that all who have voted have made a significant contribution to debate and democracy. “In the period before us I shall continue to be a PS for all 120 MPs, no matter if they supported my re-election or not. This will be a period of great challenges for all of us, so we need to make our contributions to building the capacities of democracy. I expect constructive debates in the Parliament about everything that is to be discussed here,” Xhaferi said. With 90 votes in favour, 2 against and 2 withheld, the Parliament adopted the decision to appoint MP Kostadin Kostadinov from SDSM as president of the Parliamentary Committee on Election and Appointment Issues, MP Muhamed Zekiri as his deputy, and MPs Goran Misovski, Jovan Mitreski, Fanica Nikolovska, Fadil Zendeli, Dafina Stojanoska, Igor Janusev, Nikola Micevski and Surija Rushidi as members of the Committee.