Skopje, 31 October 2025 (MIA) — If Levica's candidate for Mayor of Skopje Amar Mecinovikj wins the runoff election this Sunday, both his victory and his term in office will be nonpartisan and focused on the needs of Skopje citizens, he told a press conference Friday.

"If this victory happens, it will be nonpartisan, as will be the term in office," Mecinovikj told the press. 

"Even if we don't win — though we are sure to celebrate victory this Sunday — they can never lie again that voting for a third option or an independent candidate can't lead to anything manifesting in reality. No. This is what the people who dared vote a different way wanted, this runoff vote," Mecinovikj said, adding that those votes had taken Levica to the second round of the mayoral race.

"Nothing will be the same again. This Sunday, Skopje needs to stand up to the system," he said, adding that "Skopje can stand up to the system and win."

"This campaign made us realize Macedonia has had enough of arrogance. For 30 years, we have seen arrogance from the most incompetent people," Mecinovikj said.

He also said that after the local elections Levica's legal team would sue the people who had published his personal information — his citizen identification number — on social media during the election campaign. He said this was a serious rights violation.

According to him, it has set a precedent for violating privacy rights of other citizens.

"At a time when the public had its eyes completely fixed on two candidates, when Orce Gjorgjievski and I were the most relevant in the public discourse, my citizen identification number, which is deeply classified information, was posted online, which is something that had never happened before. It is a terrible violation and a crime," he said. 

"Someone else could do this to you, too," he said. "What institution tried to prevent this from happening? What institution responded to this after it happened? This is a human rights issue," Mecinovikj said. 

He added that he had also needed to fend off attacks from political opponents on his integrity and his family.

Also, he pointed out, the state institutions were being used to secure the victory of his VMRO-DPMNE opponent in the mayoral race.

"The power is in the institutions and all institutions have been harnessed for the victory of Orce Gjorgjievski," Mecinovikj said. 

"He has had all the money on his side, all the privileges of advertising," he said. 

Mecinovikj also recalled that citizens, amid the capital city's ongoing sanitation problem, had been given the ultimatum "either Orce wins or you live surrounded by garbage." 

"The man was given everything. His team issues personal documents. That is their politics — ​​of agencies, of businesses, of repression. Our politics is politics of communication with the public," Mecinovikj said. 

"Do you know how we operate? We operate like this, by having conversations with you and on social media. That's our communication. Their communication is structured violence. What has happened in these elections is structural violence through the institutions and through the mechanisms of governance," he told reporters.

Mecinovikj also said VMRO-DPMNE had conducted against him "the dirtiest smear campaign in the history of the Republic of Macedonia." He said the attacks were personal and not directed at anything he had done as a politician. 

"Because never before has VMRO-DPMNE had an opponent whom they could not call a sell-out or a wrongdoer. No. We have merely seen VMRO-DPMNE's authoritarian nature," he said.

"This is no laughing matter, because what is happening today to our campaign could happen to you journalists tomorrow, or to anyone who disagrees with VMRO-DPMNE's politics — as we have seen in the past — or it could happen to innocent citizens," Mecinovikj said.

"We now hear a strong alarm that there is no limit, no taboo, no morality for VMRO-DPMNE and the ruling elite in Macedonia. They will use any mechanism left at their disposal to stay in power," he added.

Levica's mayoral candidate said his political opponents were not doing this for the good of the citizens but instead to cater to the wishes of a few select people.

"But this is what motivates us," Mecinovikj said, adding that Skopje residents would refuse to be threatened ultimatums.

"VMRO-DPMNE has been pushing the story that if their candidate does not win, the city will be dysfunctional. People are not buying it," he said.

"The city has woken up after the first round and I believe Sunday will only be the culmination of what we have been doing for months," he said.

Speaking about his plans if he is elected Skopje mayor, Mecinovikj said he would put the needs of Skopje residents first. He pointed out that things could change a lot in four years and said he would listen to experts as well as to "the heartbeat of citizens."

Urging Skopje citizens to "vote against the regime" on Nov. 2, he also asked all his former political opponents to endorse him. mr/

Фото: МИА