Zaev declares victory of ruling coalition's candidate

At a press conference, Zaev said that based on 98.28 percent of votes, SDSM-DUI candidate Stevo Pendarovski had won 321,201 votes, while opposition VMRO DPMNE's candidate Gordana Siljanovska received 316,872 votes.

The candidate of the Albanian opposition Blerim Reka won 79,169 votes.
"According to these first, unofficial results, Pendarovski won 4,300 votes more than Davkov," said Zaev, adding that he was "certain that Pendarovski will be supported by more citizens in the second round on May 5."