December 23, 2017 - 2:51 PM
SKOPJE, Macedonia - Macedonia's main conservative opposition party has elected Hristijan Mickoski as its new leader at a special congress.
Mickoski, the VMRO-DPMNE party's only candidate, was elected late Saturday with 376 votes out of a total 428 delegates who voted.
The 40-year-old's election came after former Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski resigned two weeks ago following a defeat in local government elections in October.
Gruevski had been party leader since 2003 and was prime minister from 2006 to 2016, when he failed to form a coalition government after a general election. He was eventually succeeded by Social Democrat leader and bitter rival Zoran Zaev following months of political crisis.
After his Saturday election, Mickoski said his party's goal is to "dismantle the incompetent Social Democrat government."
News from © The Associated Press, 2017