Thewesternbalkans
North Macedonia’s presidential race started on April 4, with seven candidates vying for the largely ceremonial post in a two-round vote that will conclude on May 8.
The official start to campaign season means the candidates are allowed to make campaign speeches, hold rallies and present their agendas.
The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for April 24, after which the two leading candidates will face each other in a second round that will coincide with the general election on May 8.
The two largest parties in the country bet on the same candidates who were nominated in the previous presidential elections in 2019 – incumbent President Stevo Pendarovski, supported by the governing Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and MP Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, a constitutional law professor, the candidate of the main opposition center-right VMRO-DPMNE.
Other candidates include law professor Biljana Vankovska, who’s running for the leftist party Levica, and two members of the country’s ethnic Albanian minority: current Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani from the Democratic Union for Integration, which is part of the governing coalition; and Arben Taravari from an opposition ethnic Albanian party.
The other two candidates are Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski of the northern town of Kumanovo, and Mayor Stevco Jakimovski of Karpos, a municipality in the capital Skopje.
The presidential election in North Macedonia uses a two-round system under which a candidate must receive over 50% of the vote from a total of all 1.8 million registered voters. In the second round, the turnout must be at least 40% for the result to be valid.
Comment: For the first time, two representatives of ethnic Albanians in North Macedonia participate in the presidential elections – the opposition Albanian parties have named neurologist and Mayor of Gostivar Arben Taravari, and the largest Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, proposes the present Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, who is an abdominal surgeon.
Despite strong ethnic Albanian candidates, current polls are led by incumbent President Stevo Pendarovski, seeking a second five-year term and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova supported by VMRO-DPMNE.
In the second round of the presidential election in 2019, Pendarovski defeated Siljanovska Davkova with 53.58% of the vote.
