2016 Macedonian parliamentary election

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Early parliamentary elections were held in Macedonia on 11 December 2016 amid a political crisis sparked by a wiretapping scandal. The ruling VMRO-DPMNE remained the largest party, winning 51 seats, but could not form a coalition. The main opposition, SDSM, won 49 seats. Other winners were BDI with 10 seats, Besa with 5, ASh with 3, and PDSh with 2.

Because no party could form a government, SDSM negotiated with ethnic Albanian parties DUI and the Alliance for Albanians. A new government was formed in May 2017, and SDSM leader Zoran Zaev became prime minister.

Parliament has 123 seats: 120 are elected from six 20-seat districts using closed-list proportional representation (d’Hondt method), and 3 seats are for Macedonians living abroad. Those overseas seats were not awarded because the votes did not meet the threshold.

The election followed the Pržino Agreement, brokered by the EU to end the protests, which required Gruevski to resign before the vote. A transitional government had been in place since October 2015. A rerun was held on 25 December 2016 in Tearce and Gostivar, but the results stayed the same after challenges.

In 2017, protests intensified and Parliament was stormed during debates over the election of the Albanian-speaking speaker, Talat Xhaferi. VMRO-DPMNE had tried to form a coalition with DUI, but those talks failed. Eventually, Zaev’s coalition with DUI and the Alliance for Albanians formed the government.