Valbon Limani, the DUI – Alternative backed candidate for Mayor of Gostivar, won the mayoral race in the repeated election that took place today. Limani won over 13,700 votes, almost double the votes for his opponent Nevzat Bejta who was backed by VLEN.

Gostivar had to vote a second time after Limani won in the originally scheduled elections, but the turnout was narrowly below the 30 percent needed to consider the elections legitimate. Boycott from the ethnic Macedonian voters and the heavy emigration rates from Gostivar contributed to that outcome.

This makes Gostivar the only major urban area in Macedonia to be led by a Mayor backed by DUI and their partners from Arben Taravari’s Alternative for Albanians party. The DUI led coalition narrowly beat VLEN in the number of votes for municipal councils at the elections held in October, but VLEN dominated DUI in the number of mayoral seats.