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Speaking at a an event organized by Civil NGO on Tuesday, SDSM leader Zoran Zaev said that there are no direct talks with other political parties on resolving the political standoff, but indirect meetings with diplomatic representatives in Skopje.
Zaev, whose party refuses to take part in the elections scheduled for June 5, said that he is also against setting another firm election date, and would like to see a conditional date.
"During all these meetings in the past days, one issue has been clear - elections can't be held on June 5. And there will be no elections", Zaev said.
His party's refusal to participate in the elections on the first agreed date, April 24, led to the postponement.
This time, the Parliament is dissolved and it is unclear whether the ballot date can be postponed again.
The conditional election date Zaev mentioned, woiuld mean that once a future election date is set, it would be postponed again if election reform requirements are not met.
The SDSM president said his party will not take part in irregular elections.
In a much quoted remark, he added that he believes SDSM would win the elections, and then the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party and the DUI coalition partner would not recognize the outcome.
The statement was met with incredulity by VMRO-DPMNE, which have blamed SDSM of trying to avoid the elections because of their poor standing in the polls.
Public opinion surveys show that SDSM continues to trail behind VMRO-DPMNE roughly by a 2:1 margin, and the latter has insisted on resolving the political crisis through elections, as was agreed in June 2015.
Zaev said that SDSM also demands that President Gjorge Ivanov's decision to give pardons to politicians from both VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, and their affiliates be withdrawn.
The list included Zaev, his predecessor Branko Crvenkovski, VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski, former minister and former spy chief Zoran Verusevski, who is charged with providing Zaev with a cache of illegally wiretapped phone conversations that sparked the political crisis.
Both VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM asked President Ivanov to withdraw his decision.
