Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Skopje, North Macedonia, on Oct. 31, 2021. The second round of local elections kicked off on Sunday in 44 municipalities across North Macedonia. (Photo by Tomislav Georgiev/Xinhua)
SKOPJE, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The second round of local elections kicked off on Sunday in 44 municipalities across North Macedonia.
A total of 1,353,990 citizens have the right to cast their votes in 2,481 polling stations from 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) to 7 p.m. local time.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Ljupka Gugchecvka, the spokesperson of the State Election Commission, told reporters that the commission has accredited a total of 1,598 domestic and foreign observers to monitor the runoff, as well as 10 foreign journalists.
A total of 34 mayors were elected in the first round of elections held on Oct. 17, according to the SEC.
In the first round, candidates from the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE won in 22 municipalities, the ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia in nine and Democratic Union for Integration in three municipalities.
The municipalities of Mavrovo-Rostushe and Centar Zhupa will redo the first round due to a failure to meet the prerequisite turnout of one third of registered voters.
The turnout in the first round of local elections was 48.99 percent, or 848,104 voters out of over 1.8 million eligible voters, according to the election commission.
The elections in North Macedonia saw the introduction of biometric fingerprint identification for voters. Enditem
