Skopje, 24 October 2024 (MIA) – Orce Gjorgjievski, chairman of the Association of Local Self-Government Units (ZELS) and Mayor of Skopje’s Kisela Voda municipality, says Thursday he hopes the mayors of Strumica and Karposh will reconsider their decisions to leave ZELS. An official request for cancelling the ZELS membership hasn’t been received so far, he told reporters.

He called the move by the two mayors “unserious” after Strumica Mayor Kostadin Kostadinov announced the decision in a social media post and Karposh Mayor Stevche Jakimoski held a news conference without informing him being the ZELS chairman. 

“I call on the two colleagues to come to their senses and to approach their moves more seriously,” Gjorgjievski said, adding that a decision to join or leave ZELS is made by the municipal council. 

“ZELS’s door remains open for everybody, every problem can be solved if there is interest and if there is nothing else in the background of this process,” he stated

Earlier in a statement for MIA, Minister of Local Self-Government Zlatko Perinski said Strumica and Karposh quitting ZELS is not the solution and it harms the citizens.

“ZELS is the only association of local self-government units tasked with representing their interests before the government. This behaviour only undermines ZELS’s position because only a united ZELS can be a serious partner of the government in the talks on how to develop the municipalities,” said Perinski. 

The Municipality of Strumica in a press release after the move was announced yesterday by the mayor said it is  officially cancelling its membership in the Association of Local Self-Government Units (ZELS) and its mayor Kostadin Kostadinov will step down as member of the steering board.

Photo: printscreen