Skopje, 21 October 2025 (MIA) - Mayors were elected in 43 municipalities in the first round of the local elections, while a second round will be held in 33. In four municipalities, the first round will be repeated because of low turnout. Voter turnout in the local elections was 46.63 percent, meaning that 854,620 citizens cast their ballots, the State Election Commission (SEC) said late Monday in its preliminary official results from the October 19 local elections.

The head of the State Election Commission (SEC), Boris Kondarko, said that based on the minutes received from all municipal election commissions, second round of local elections will be held in 33 municipalities in two weeks, on November 2. For the City of Skopje, the runoff will be between Amar Mecinovikj from Levica and Orce Gjorgjievski from the VMRO-DPMNE-led “Your Macedonia” coalition.

According to the preliminary official results, in the first round of the local elections VMRO-DPMNE won mayoral seats in 33 municipalities, the Vlen coalition in five, NAI in three, and SDSM in three.

“In the second round, the winner is the candidate who receives more votes; there is no required voter turnout,” Kondarko said.

The first round of elections will be repeated in four municipalities that failed to meet the legal turnout requirement of at least one-third of registered voters, within 60 days after the final results are announced.

The first round will be repeated in Gostivar, Mavrovo, Rostushe, Vrapchishte, and Centar Zhupa, as the required voting threshold of one-third of registered voters was not reached.

The State Election Commission (SEC) announced Monday evening the distribution of council seats by municipality in the local elections.

“With this, the SEC released the complete preliminary official results for the local elections, including mayoral elections in the municipalities, municipal councilors, as well as the mayor of Skopje and the City Council of Skopje. The deadline for filing complaints regarding the summarized results is 48 hours, starting from 10 pm Monday and ending on Wednesday, October 22, at 10 pm,” Kondarko said.

He reminded that the deadline for filing complaints regarding the voting process has been in effect since Sunday.

“It began Sunday at 7 pm and will run until Tuesday at 7 pm. Complaints must be submitted directly to the State Election Commission. Submission of complaints by mail or email is not allowed,” Kondarko noted.

On Monday evening, the State Election Commission dismissed as unfounded the complaints of alleged irregularities in the election process submitted by the group of voters Biljana Ivanovska for mayor of the Centar municipality and by the group of voters Jane Dimeski for the municipal councilor list in Centar.

Earlier, the State Election Commission closed its 147th session, because, as the SEC head Boris Kondarko said, no new complaints regarding the protection of personal voting rights had been received in the meantime.

Photo: screenshot