state electoral commission

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov is set to win a second term, while his ruling VMRO-DPMNE is likely to stay in power after Sunday's 2-in-1 elections.

Ivanov has won 505.687 votes, and the ballots cast for his main rival socialist Stevo Pendarovski has been 372.886 after the counting of results in 95% of polling stations.

Preliminary results from Sunday’s presidential election in Macedonia suggest that Ivanov, who is running for a second five-year term for the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, is leading the count, ahead of his main rival, Stevo Pendarovski who is running for the opposition Social Democrats.

The State Electoral Commission, said that 95 per cent of the votes have been counted so  far.

The State Electoral Commission said that the voting went well with reports of minor irregularities.

“By 17h 41, 23 per cent of the electorate had cast their ballots” informed.

This is  considerably less than at the previous presidential poll five years ago when by this time, 48,73 percent had voted.

Campaigning for the presidential election will halt in Macedonia ahead of Sunday, when more than 1.7 million registered voters will choose between four candidates.

Voters will choose between incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov who is running for a second five-year term for the ruling VMRO DPMNE party and three other hopefuls.

The interim report released on Thursday, covering the period March 10-26, says the presidential candidates started promoting their campaigns before the campaign's official start date - March 24.

Local and international organizations seeking to follow the election process will have registered just over 3,000 monitors with the State Electoral Commission by the end of the deadline on Wednesday at midnight.

The civil association MOST, which provided most local monitors for Macedonia's previous elections, said it plans to deploy 2,240 monitors.

BELGRADE - Citizens will cast their ballot at 8,262 polling stations, including those in penal institutions, in the territory of Serbia during early parliamentary elections that will be held on March 16, the state electoral commission (RIK) decided on Tuesday.

Polling stations in Kosovo-Metohija and the ones abroad have not been included in this number.