Skopje, 18 December 2025 (MIA) - The General Assembly of the Association of Local Self-Government Units (ZELS) held a constitutive session on Thursday, electing Skopje Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski as ZELS president, as well as Centar Municipality Mayor Goran Gerasimovski and Chair Municipality Mayor Izet Mexhiti as ZELS vice-presidents.  

Prilep Mayor Dejan Prodanoski has bee elected president of the ZELS Supervisory Board. 

"Fellow mayors have given me unanimous support and trust to continue heading ZELS as its president in the coming period. I hope that together we will overcome many issues and situations. In the past, we had certain difficulties that we dealt with, we had certain crises that we resolved together. We will continue to work together and united, without allowing politics to interfere in these processes and in our actions, in order to improve the conditions of the municipalities, greater decentralization, especially fiscal decentralization of the municipalities," said Gjorgjievski. 

He added that talks with fellow mayors have highlighted the commitment to introducing municipal police in 2026.  

"It will seriously help us establish order, good positive practice. It will make it easier for us, but it will also make the work of state institutions easier, seeing that many of the Ministry of Interior's resources are currently being spent on this issue. In the future, we would treat this issue as local self-government," Gjorgjievski noted.

He expressed gratitude to his colleagues for the trust and opportunity given to him. "This time I have a full mandate, unlike in the past when I had almost half a mandate to head ZELS," Gjorgjievski added.

Photo and video: MIA