Following the closure of polling stations at 7:00 p.m., voting officially ended across all municipalities in North Macedonia for this year’s local elections — the eighth overall and the fourth to elect mayors and municipal councilors in 80 local self-governing units.
The Vice President of the National Alliance for Integration (AKI), Arbër Ademi, expressed optimism about his party’s performance in an interview with Klan Kosova, emphasizing that the current trend is clearly favorable compared to the VLEN coalition.
According to Ademi, based on data from less than one-third of the counted ballot boxes, his party is leading in most of the municipalities where the race is more competitive, signaling what he described as a significant national-level victory.
“I take full responsibility in saying that, on a national level, we are heading toward a major victory, with a considerable lead of AKI over VLEN. It is still early to speak about final results, but the trend emerging from less than one-third of the counted votes shows a strong and positive momentum for us,” Ademi stated.
He added that in some municipalities, even less than one-fifth of the votes have been counted, but the processed data by AKI’s central campaign office indicates “a highly positive trend and a substantial advantage for the National Alliance for Integration over VLEN.”
According to the State Election Commission (SEC) of North Macedonia, over 1.83 million citizens were eligible to vote in this election process.
The elections were reported to have been conducted peacefully and without major incidents, though authorities confirmed several irregularities and isolated arrests.
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Panče Toškovski, announced at a press conference that 11 people were arrested, four of whom were later released, while seven remain under investigation.
“With pride I can say that today’s elections were the calmest and most democratic so far. We have proven that when institutions function properly, democracy flourishes. A total of 91 cases were reported across North Macedonia — most related to vote-buying, photographing of ballots, and similar offenses. Eleven individuals were arrested, four were released, and seven remain under investigation,” said Toškovski.
