Voting has begun in the second round of the presidential and parliamentary elections in North Macedonia, with 1,814,317 people eligible to vote in the presidential elections and 1,815,350 in the parliamentary elections, the State Election Commission (SEC) reported.
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Voting takes place on Wednesday from 7.00 to 19.00 at about 3.5 thousand polling stations throughout the country. On Tuesday, Macedonians voted in embassies abroad, military units, prisons, hospitals and nursing homes. A total of just over 1.8 million citizens of North Macedonia have the right to vote.
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For the first time since the “motley revolution” of 2016, when the now ruling SDSM party (Social Democratic Union of Macedonia) came to power in North Macedonia, the largest opposition VMRO-DPMNE (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity) can win the presidential elections and parliamentary elections.
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The first round of the presidential elections took place on April 24. VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova doubled ahead of President Stevo Pendarovski, gaining about 40% of the votes against less than 20% for the incumbent head of state.
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The third result was demonstrated by the candidate from the largest Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani – about 13.5%.
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With such a lead, Siljanovskaya-Davkova’s victory over Pendarovski in the second round is almost guaranteed, but the support of ethnic Albanian voters, who make up about 25% of the country’s population, will play an important role.
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The President of the Republic is elected for a term of five years, performs mainly representative functions, and foreign and domestic policy is determined by the government headed by the Prime Minister, which is supported by the ruling majority in parliament. In total, candidates from 17 parties and blocs are vying for 120 seats in the Assembly, the largest of which are SDSM, VMRO-DPMNE, DUI and the opposition Albanian coalition VLEN. The first preliminary results are expected around 21.00
