Skopje, 27 July 2021 (MIA) – October 17 remains the local election date, in line with the Electoral Code. The overlap between the election campaign and the census won’t change anything, and the census may even finish earlier, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said on Tuesday. “Working groups made up of representatives from all political parties have proposed October 17 as the date for the local elections. The date has been determined in the Electoral Code and hasn’t been changed. Issues arose over the three-day overlap between the election campaign and the census, but at the end it was decided that those three days don’t change anything. The census is a regular activity that takes place during the day, while campaign activities are held at night. The census is set to be conducted this year over the course of 30 days, even though the process usually takes 20 days to be completed, which means that it can even wrap up sooner. There’s enough time, so there’s no need to change the election date,” Zaev told reporters at the opening of a new kindergarten at Skopje’s Stajkovci. In regard to collection of signatures for independent lists of candidates, the PM added that stakeholders have agreed that their number should stand at 2% of the total number of voters in the area. “For example, if the municipality has 10,000 voters, 200 signatures are needed to submit an independent list,” Zaev said. He underlined that talks were held for over a month between all political parties in Parliament, during which the election date, signature collection and other details were agreed upon. “This is not some kind of an agreement between SDSM, VMRO-DPMNE and DUI, Alliance [for Albanians] and Levica were also included in drafting the law, before its adoption in Parliament. I think we should respect the OSCE/ODIHR recommendation for a single signature collection threshold based on percentage,” the PM added. In regard to possibly forming a coalition with BESA, Zaev said that SDSM will cooperate with all coalition partners in the second round. “In some municipalities all parties will have their own candidates, so there will be no coalitions is in the first round. However, once citizens decide which candidates will move on to the second round, it’s logical that coalition partners will support each other,” Zaev stressed. Moreover, he told reporters that the observance of August 2 – Ilinden will take place this year in Pelince.