TV Presidential Debate Fails to Switch on Macedonia

One week before the first round of Macedonian presidential elections, all four presidential candidate took part in an unexpected debate hosted by state television.

The hour-and-a-half debate on issues ranging from Macedonia disputed name to the economy failed to catch fire, however, and was dogged by long monologues that were deemed monotonous by many viewers and observers.

“The debate did not live up to expectations. The candidates did not use their opportunities to respond during the first few questions, which was unacceptable, especially for the candidates challenging the current head of state,” a communications expert, Marko Trosanovski, said.

“It was monotonous and did not stir interest among people. The journalist failed to inspire the candidates who were fairly courteous to each other, not letting a real debate take place,” Jove Kekenovski, another analyst, told 24 Vesti TV.

Expectations had been running high as the televised debate was the first face-to-face confrontation between the incumbent President, Gjorge Ivanov, who is running for his second term for the ruling VMRO DPMNE party and his main challenger, Stevo Pendarovski, from the opposition Social Democrats, SDSM.

Iljaz Halimi, candidate of the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, as well as Zoran Popovski, running for the new opposition party, Civil Option for Macedonia, GROM, also took part.

Many doubted the debate would take place. A policy of avoiding direct debates with the opposition began with the current Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, when his VMRO DPMNE party took power in 2006.

The opposition regularly called for TV debates over the years, but Gruevski's party usually responded that there was no...