North Macedonia Presidential Election Heads To Runoff

The shocking news available to GlobalCurrent24.com is that, North Macedonia presidential election heads to runoff.

In the first round of voting held in preparation for the country’s entry into the European Union on Wednesday, no candidate received enough votes to win the presidency hands-down. As a result, North Macedonia will proceed to a runoff election.

Parliamentary elections will take place on May 8th, coinciding with the second round of voting. Voter turnout on Wednesday was almost entirely in favor of the candidate supported by the main opposition coalition, VMRO-DPMNE, which is on the center-right.

After roughly 92% of the votes were tallied, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova had a significant lead with slightly less than 40%. The State Electoral Commission reports that incumbent President Stevo Pendarovski, who is running for a second five-year term with the backing of the nation’s ruling social democrats, came in second place with almost 20% of the vote.

Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, a member of the ethnic Albanian minority who is allied with the government, came in second with 13.6% of the vote, behind Pendarovski. 49.75% of people showed up.

A candidate needed the endorsement of more than 50% of voters who were registered in order to win outright. Pendarovski and Siljanovska Davkova will thus face off in the presidential runoff.

In North Macedonia, there is a lot of expectation that the president will supervise the country’s eagerly awaited EU entry.

The tiny Balkan nation has spent almost two decades circling the 27-nation bloc, but its efforts have yielded little results.

Speaking to a large gathering of VMRO-DPMNE supporters outside the party headquarters in the heart of Skopje late on Wednesday, Siljanovska Davkova emphasized her record of support for the European Union.

Pendarovski expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome. However, he expressed his hope to perform better in the next round, with the help of the nation’s ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up around 25% of the total population.

During the brief campaign period, the seven candidates vying for the mostly ceremonial post focused on combating corruption, lowering poverty, promoting the rule of law, and EU accession.

Aleksandar Dashtevski, the head of the electoral commission, stated earlier on Wednesday that voting was proceeding without a hitch, except for a small technical issue that some polling places had with their biometric equipment that was swiftly fixed.

Pendarovski, 61, and Siljanovska Davkova, 70, concur that their nation should be a member of the EU. However, their approaches to neighboring Bulgaria’s insistence that Skopje recognize a Bulgarian ethnic minority in its constitution have diverged. If not, Bulgaria, an EU member, has threatened to thwart North Macedonia’s application to join the bloc.

Although North Macedonia has been seeking membership in the EU since 2005, the process is anticipated to take several years, and membership talks did not start until 2022.

Voter Stavre Temelkovski expressed his optimism that North Macedonia would shortly join the EU as a full member.

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