Dissatisfied with the parliament's refusal to urgently adopt a decision to annul the elections in all 16 municipalities with the Albanian majority, the Albanian opposition coalition consisting of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) and the Party of Democratic Prosperity said it would boycott the elections.
DPA vice-president Menduh Taci said that the decision was prompted by irregularities at more than 50 percent of polling stations in ethnic Albanian municipalities, of which he accused the Democratic Union for Integration, the Albanian party which is a member of the ruling coalition.
This party supports the ruling coalition's candidate for Skopje Mayor, Risto Penov.
Independent candidate for mayor Trifun Kostovski, who is supported by the Macedonian opposition bloc consisting of the VMRO-DPMNE, the VMRO-Narodna, the Democratic Alternative, the Democratic Alliance and the Socialist Party, last night organised a walk from the government to the parliament building in protest of the failure to sanction election irregularities.
Kostovski, who won 110,000 votes in the first round, claims that his victory was stolen and that the authorities would try to prevent his victory in the second round with the help of their Albanian coalition partner.
If he wins the elections, incumbent mayor Risto Penov, who won 68,000 votes in the first round, will be elected to his third term in office.
The fierce fight for victory in the local elections stems from the fact that they mark the beginning of decentralisation of authority, with municipalities being granted much more powers and funds. Albanians are particularly interested in the elections, because with the new territorial division they will win power in more municipalities than before, in line with the 2001 Ohrid Agreement, signed after the armed conflict of Albanian rebels and the Macedonian army.