North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has dismissed his SDSM party‘s top leadership over a low turnout at the recent parliamentary and local elections, TV Telma reported.

All six ruling party vice-presidents and its general secretary were forced to resign their posts, the station said and added that Internal Affairs Minister Oliver Spasovaski and Administration Minister Damjan Mancevski were among them. The mayors of the capital Skoplje and the city of Stip also resigned as did two SDSM MPs.  

A new portal in Skoplje said that Zaev insisted on the resignations after he dismissed the heads of all 78 local branches of the party.  

Zaev said he would purge the party leadership after the first round of the presidential elections on April 21 because of the low turnout caused by dissatisfaction with his cabinet.