Radichevski wins 38.9 percent in Brvenica as the runoff is set for November 1

In the by-election for mayor of Brvenica held on Sunday, October 18, no candidate won more than half of the vote. According to results published in the media, Stojanche Radichevski, the candidate of VMRO-DPMNE and the “Your Macedonia” coalition, won 2,943 votes, or 38.9 percent of the ballots cast. The decision therefore moves to a runoff scheduled for November 1.

The candidate of NAI came second with 2,152 votes (28.45 percent). The candidate of the VLEN coalition was third with 1,528 votes (20.20 percent), and the candidate of SDSM and its coalition was fourth with 706 votes (9.33 percent). Two voter-group candidates received 55 and 21 votes. The candidates' votes add up to 7,405.

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In total, 7,565 of 16,256 registered voters turned out, which is about 46.5 percent. That means more than half of those eligible, a little over 8,600 people, did not vote at all. The figures come from media reports; the final and official data are published by the State Election Commission.

The rule is simple. A mayor is elected with more than half of the votes cast, and if nobody reaches that level, the two candidates with the most votes go to a runoff. On these numbers, that should be Radichevski and the NAI candidate. The gap between them in the first round is 791 votes, or roughly ten percentage points of all ballots cast.

Prime Minister and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski described the result as a convincing victory and said that on November 1 the party is “going for a total win”. He said Radichevski won an “overwhelming majority of votes” and that the gap over SDSM is greater than 4 to 1. The numbers make clear that the first round is a good start for VMRO-DPMNE, but a first-round lead is not an election: Brvenica has no mayor until the runoff is over.

What is not known? The key question is where the votes of those who backed VLEN and SDSM in the first round, about 2,200 in total, will go. That group is more than twice the size of the gap between the top two. It is also unknown whether and which parties will publicly endorse anyone, and how many of those who stayed home in the first round will come out on November 1. With only two candidates in the runoff, even a small change in turnout can alter the picture.

What does it mean? For VMRO-DPMNE the lead is real but not decisive. For NAI, being the second candidate is a chance to turn first-round support into a majority. The remaining participants have two options: back someone or leave the choice to voters. Until November 1, and even on the day itself, every figure is a basis for an estimate, not a forecast.

MKNews Hub · Macedonia · October 19, 2026