Presidential Election Campaign Starts in Macedonia

The candidate of the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov, launches his campaign with a rally in the town of Ohrid, the party’s traditional election launch venue.

Ivanov, who is competing for a secound five-year term in office, is running under the election slogan “The State Above All”, positioning himself as a proven defender of the country's interests.

Ivanov’s main opponent, Stevo Pendarovski from the main opposition Social Democratic party, SDSM, is officially starting his campaign at a party convention in Skopje.

Pendarovski, a former adviser to ex-presidents Boris Trajkovski and Branko Crvenkovski, will run under the slogan “Macedonia Deserves a President”, underlining his criticism of Ivanov who according to the opposition has been little more than a cypher for the governing party.

Iljaz Halimi, the presidential candidate of the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, said he would focus on direct contact with the electorate rather than on massive rallies. Halimi is a former deputy speaker of parliament and the only ethnic Albanian running for the presidency.

The small, newly-formed opposition party, Civil Option for Macedonia, GROM, has put forward Zoran Popovski as its presidential candidate. The party also says it will opt for promotion through social networks and direct meetings.

After the vote on April 13, a second round pitting the two best ranked candidates against each other will take place two weeks later, on April 27, alongside snap general elections.

Opposition candidate Stevo Pendarovski | Photo by: SDSM

The dominant issues in the campaign will be the country’s blocked EU and NATO accession path and the related long-standing name...