Politics of North Macedonia

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.

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.

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.

Polls opened early Sunday in North Macedonia for a presidential election seen as a key test for the government following the country's changing its name to end a decades-old dispute with neighboring Greece over the use of the term "Macedonia".

More than 3,400 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 7 p.m. (1700GMT).

The elected will be the first head of state after the change of name of our Southwest neighbor, reported NOVA TV. 

The Republic of Northern Macedonia officially launches the election campaign for the upcoming presidential elections.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras recognized that achieving the agreement which ended a decades-old dispute with North Macedonia on its name had a political cost on the government, in an interview with North Macedonian news agency MIA, ahead of his visit to Skopje on Tuesday.

I first visited Skopje in 1997 to attend a peace concert by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. It had all the elements to become a charming city with a strong modernist identity, expanding on the reconstruction that was carried out with the help of Greek architect Constantinos Doxiadis after the devastating earthquake in 1963.