The prosecutor who found the cash in Judge Ristov's wall will head the organised crime prosecution: Hadzi Vasileva wins by seven votes

Iskra Hadzi Vasileva will be the new head of the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office for Prosecuting Organised Crime and Corruption. In a direct, secret ballot in which prosecutors from across the country voted, she won 64 votes. Trajche Pelivanov came second with 57, Jovan Cvetanovski got 30, Faton Azizi 14 and Lidija Raichevikj six.

187 public prosecutors were entitled to vote and 175 did. Twelve didn't vote, and four ballots were invalid, all of them at the polling station in the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Skopje. Hadzi Vasileva won at every polling station except Gostivar, where Pelivanov beat her 16 to 4. Seven votes in the end: enough to win, too few to call it a landslide.

Why does this matter? Because it's one of the few places in the system where trust is handed out by colleagues, not by a party. The State Public Prosecutor is voted in by the ruling majority. The head of the organised crime office is chosen by prosecutors. In a country where every appointment is read through a party lens, that is no small difference.

Hadzi Vasileva isn't an unknown. She's the prosecutor who found 350,000 euros walled up at Judge Gjoko Ristov's place, and she's also handling the corruption case against former State Agriculture Inspectorate director Vase Anakiev over a 50,000-euro bribe in a garage at the "Dzhevahir" towers. She has 11 years of experience as a public prosecutor and has been at the organised crime office since 2024. After Vilma Ruskovska, she is the second woman to lead it, even though more than 90 percent of its prosecutors are women.

Pelivanov, for his part, handled the wiretapping cases and a case against former intelligence chief Sasho Mijalkov. So the prosecutors were choosing between two candidates with heavy cases behind them.

She will succeed Islam Abazi, whose term ends on November 15. The result still has to be made official once the deadline for appeals runs out. The real test comes after that: will the office that goes after organised crime also strike where it hurts those in power, whoever they happen to be?