state electoral commission

The presidential election landscape in North Macedonia is poised for a runoff between Gordana Siljanovska, representing VMRO-DPMNE, and Stevo Pendarovski, backed by SDSM, following the release of partial results by the State Electoral Commission. With 98.18 percent of the protocols processed, Siljanovska leads with 40.20 percent of the vote, compared to Pendarovski's 20 percent.

The forthcoming local elections on October 17 will again be dominated by male mayoral candidates, official data on candidacies that was recently published by the State Electoral Commission reveals.

Out of a total of 298 candidates who will be competing for mayoral seats in the country's 81 municipalities, only 26, or less than nine per cent, are women, the data shows.

In a blow to the right-wing government of Janez Jansa, which had proposed the changes, more than 86 per cent voters in a referendum in Slovenia on Sunday rejected the government-proposed Water Law.

Opponents of changes to Slovenia's Water Law have just one day of campaigning before citizens cast their votes in a referendum.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, then presidential candidate, greets a supporter during a campaign rally in Nis in 2017. Photo: EPA/Djordje Savic

Serbia's election race will restart where it stopped:

Skopje Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced Democratic Union for Integration, DUI party officials Ejup Alimi and Ismet Guri to three-and-a-half years in jail each for the "destruction of electoral materials" in Skopje's municipality of Cair during the 2013 local polls.

The prospect of making a quick buck from budget money intended for election advertising has encouraged a staggering 235 web portals, many with obscure backgrounds and identities, to register at the State Electoral Commission, DIK, for a slice of the pie.

Political parties in North Macedonia are spending more cash on electoral promotion since 2018, when the country started paying for the airing of their promotions on TV and radio stations and in newspapers and portals.

Still smarting from losing the Senate by a whisker earlier this month, Poland's governing populists are contesting the result.

Opposition parties won 48 seats in the upper house, helped by a strategy of not fielding candidates against each other. Combined with the votes of three independents who support them, that gives the opposition just enough clout to control the chamber.

Stevo Pendarovski won the presidential elections in northern Macedonia. The ruling coalition candidate received 51.66% of the votes, reported NOVA TV. 

Pendarovski faced a run-off against Gordana Silyanovska-Davkova, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE.

Pendarovski was elected by the ruling party of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev Social Democratic Union (SDSM).