It would be more virtuous and ethical of SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski to announce his own resignation instead of a boycott of the second round of the local elections. Following the seventh election defeat that his party has suffered, analysts, political experts and former high-ranking members of SDSM, say that many segments, even before 24 March, indicated a lost fight which should by definition be followed by a resignation of the leader of the group. The analysts that Dnevnik talked to say that at his last press conference on the Election Day, at which, due to election irregularities, Crvenkovski announced the possibility of boycotting the second round of vote, Crvenkovski and SDSM Secretary General Andrej Petrov should have stepped down conceding the party wheel to SDSM Vice Chairman Zoran Zaev, at least until the May congress, at which the party’s next steps will be discussed.

“I have warned many times that the results will be bad. I have no idea what more should happen so Crvenkovski would resign. Until SDSM defeats Crvenkovski, the party is not going to make any headway,” says former Prime Minister and former leader of the party, Vlado Buckovski, whom SDSM expelled for having argued in public that Crvenkovski and the leadership took the party in the wrong direction.