November 29 (SeeNews) - The central committee of North Macedonia's governing left-wing SDSM party accepted the resignation of Zoran Zaev as leader of the party and prime minister, a party spokesperson said.
Zaev announced in late October that he is stepping down as prime minister after the SDSM party suffered a defeat in the local elections. However, SDSM's central committee decided that the prime minister should postpone his resignation until the political situation in the country has stabilised.
SDSM's central committee opened a call for applications for a new party leader and scheduled intra-party elections for the leadership position on December 12, SDSM spokesperson Bogdanka Kuzeska told a press conference streamed on the party's YouTube channel on Saturday.
Zaev said earlier that SDSM's new president will also be the party's nomination for prime minister.
The prime minister nominated by SDSM will then get a government-formation mandate from president Stavo Pendarovski and the cabinet lineup will be put to the vote in parliament. The proposed cabinet lineup needs the support of at least 61 members of the 120-seat parliament in order to pass. However, it is still unclear if it will get sufficient backing after a junior partner in the ruling coalition withdrew its support.
The main opposition VMRO-DPMNE said earlier in November it has formed a majority in the parliament that would replace the SDSM cabinet following Zaev's resignation. However, VMRO-DPMNE's subsequent no-confidence vote against the government failed due to a lack of quorum.
Zaev's coalition government comprising the SDSM-led coalition Mozeme and the Albanian Democratic Union of Integration (DUI) was voted into office in August 2020 on the votes of 62 MP in the 120-seat parliament.