Elections in North Macedonia

In what looked like a closely coordinated move, the junior partner in the coalition government in North Macedonia, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, and the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party, on Thursday submitted thousands of amendments to the proposed change to the electoral law.

The smaller ethnic Albanian parties in the country can only hope to defeat the hegemonic force of the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, in next year's early elections if they band together.

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).

Preliminary results from Sunday's second round of presidential elections in North Macedonia suggested that Stevo Pendarovski, the candidate supported by the country's ruling parties, has won the election, after taking a firm lead against his rival, Gordana Siljanovska, who was backed by the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party.

Polling stations opened on Sunday in the presidential election run-off in North Macedonia, amid fears that if the turnout is as low as it was in the first round, two weeks ago, the election process is in danger.

A total of 3,480 polling stations opened at 7am for an election in which some 1.8 million people have the right to vote.

Polls have opened in North Macedonia for a presidential election runoff between two top vote-getters from the first round.

More than 3,400 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local Sunday.

Newly renamed North Macedonia heads to the polls on Sunday for runoff presidential elections. Two candidates, both university professors, are competing for the post after the third candidate was knocked in last month's first round.

Voters in newly renamed North Macedonia will choose the country's new president Sunday in tightly contested polls that could see the ethnic Albanian minority playing a major role.
Although the president has a largely ceremonial position, with some powers to veto legislation, the outcome of the vote could trigger early parliamentary elections in a deeply polarized country.

Close Shave

The first round of Macedonia's presidential elections delivered a surprisingly close outcome - the ruling SDSM candidate, Stevo Pendarovski, emerged less than 1% ahead of his main challenger, Gordana Siljanovska. This was despite polls which had shown him to be up to 5% ahead.

Ruling alliance candidate Stevo Pendarovski [right] with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev [left]. Photo: EPA/EFE GEORGI LICOVSKI