North Macedonia’s governing SDSM party dismissed its secretary general, all six deputy presidents and other senior party officials on May 26 as part of its cleanup operation.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who is also the party leader, promised to make changes to the party and government following the unsatisfactory result for its candidate in the first round of the presidential election on April 21.

SDSM secretary general Aleksandar Kiracovski has been replaced by Ljupco Nikolovski who will stand down as agriculture minister to take up the new position, the SDSM said in the statement. Kiracovski was sacked as he was linked with nepotism scandals.

"We promised changes and changes are taking place. We have made decisions that bring substantial changes in the party, decisions that will accelerate the country's progress and better conditions in the society," Zaev said.

The party also dismissed all six deputy presidents, Blagoj Bocvarski, Damjan Mancevski, Frosina Remenski, Petre Shilegov, Oliver Spasovski and Muhamed Zeqiri, as well as the entire executive board of the party.

These positions are due to be filled during the meeting of the party’s central committee on June 9 or 16.

Last week SDSM sacked 78 presidents of its municipal branches.

Senior staff changes in state-owned companies and all government institutions will also take place in the first half of June.

Meanwhile, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, which accuses the government of nepotism, corruption and bad governance, is seeking the resignation of the entire cabinet and a snap election. The idea was rejected by Zaev.