With 376 votes “for” Hristijan Mickoski has been elected as the new leader of VMRO-DPMNE. He was also the only candidate that the delegates could circle on the ballot. At the urgent 16th Congress of the party, held in Valandovo, out of the 438 delegates, 371 voters voted for Mickoski, 52 ballots were invalid, and nine delegates did not vote at all. VMRO-DPMNE has a total of 544 delegates. Mickoski previously served as Secretary General. He now takes the place of Nikola Gruevski, who was leader of VMRO-DPMNE since 2003, and announced his resignation earlier this month after the party lost the local elections in October, this year.