In the race for president of the Skopje Court of Appeal: judges Lidija Zimbovska and Zoran Gerasimovski

The Judicial Council of North Macedonia approved the reports on the candidates for president of the Skopje Court of Appeal and the Struga Basic Court, finding that the applications are timely and complete. Judges Zoran Gerasimovski and Lidija Zimbovska have run for the head of the Skopje Court of Appeal, while for the Struga Basic Court the sole candidate is Tanche Petrevski, as the Plusinfo portal reports.

At the same session, the Council elected the new presidents of the basic courts in Gostivar, Debar and Sveti Nikole. For the Gostivar court, Miroslav Petrovski, the current acting president, was elected; for Debar, Oruč Abazovski; and for Sveti Nikole, Valentina Burovska as the sole candidate. The Council also approved the quarterly reports on the work of the courts for the April–June 2026 period, assessing the courts at the state level as not up to date with their caseload. In the second quarter the courts failed to cope with the influx of new cases and increased the backlog by 2,127 cases: from 147,288 unresolved cases at the start, they received 121,909 new ones, resolved 119,782 and closed the period with 149,415 unresolved cases. The worst affected is the Skopje Basic Civil Court, with the largest backlog in the country — 24,298 unresolved cases. As for the Berovo Basic Court, it was said at the session that it practically does not function due to a lack of judges and other professional staff. The discussion showed that almost all courts face a shortage of judges and especially of judicial staff, which remains the biggest challenge for the efficiency of the judicial system.