Communists and islamists in Macedonia to announce joint presidential candidate

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Ali Ahmeti, leader of the ethnic Albanian DUI party, announced today that he has come to an agreement with Zoran Zaev for a joint, “consensual” presidential nominee of the two parties. The name of the candidate, Ahmeti added, will be revealed on Friday.

I’ve just completed my meeting with Zoran, the leader of SDS, and we reached agreement to support a joint candidate for president. I believe that this concept will win the support of an absolute majority of our citizens, Ahmeti informed via Facebook.

Zaev’s SDS has been pushing Ahmeti for a while to agree to a joint candidate, while Ahmeti has been promoting the idea that future presidential candidates will have to be acceptable to the Albanians, meaning they would have to receive the support of his party. It is widely assumed that the candidate would be an ethnic Macedonian, who would be approved by Ahmeti, although DUI has toyed with the option to nominate a Macedonian with some Albanian ancestors, or an outright Albanian candidate.

Most talked about are Radmila Sekerinska and Oliver Spasovski from SDS, but also the Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov and Stevo Pendarovski. The announcement comes at a time when SDS and DUI were having an open feud through several of their members of Parliament, after the failed attempt to arrest former Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski.