On Sunday, local elections are being held in Macedonia, which is a test for the new left-wing government five months after it came to power in an acute political crisis after a decade of conservative government, the Associated Press reported.

The first round of elections is today, with over 1.8 million registered voters electing mayors and municipal councilors in the capital Skopje and 80 other municipalities. The second round is scheduled for October 29th.

Public opinion polls show that the ruling Social Democrats have little headway, especially in Skopje, where their mayor candidate leads with 2.6 percentage points to the conservative candidate. Conservative VMRO-DPMNE, the main opposition party, seeks to defend its domination at the local level. At the previous local elections in 2013, they won in 56 of 81 municipalities when the Social Democrats won a total of four.