Presidential election in North Macedonia enters second round

In the first round of the presidential election in North Macedonia, the candidate from the center-right opposition received the most votes, but fell short of an absolute majority. There will now be a runoff election on May 8th. Parliament is also elected on that day.

The presidential election in North Macedonia will be decided in a second round of voting. In the first round of voting, none of the candidates received enough votes to prevail directly. The runoff election is scheduled to take place on May 8, the day of the general election.

After 90 percent of the votes were counted, the opposition-supported candidate Gordana Siljanovska Davkova was well ahead of the competition with almost 40 percent. According to the electoral commission, incumbent President Stevo Pendarovski received almost 20 percent of the vote. He is supported by the ruling Social Democrats. These two candidates will run in the runoff election.

EU accession a dominant election campaign issue

A total of seven candidates applied for the largely ceremonial presidency. The election campaign was dominated by topics such as the desire to join the EU, the rule of law, the fight against corruption and reducing poverty. Around 1.8 million voters were registered in the country with 2.3 million inhabitants.

According to official information, voter turnout was more than 49 percent, about eight percentage points higher than the turnout in the first round of the 2019 presidential election.

North Macedonia has been a candidate for membership of the European Union since 2005. However, discussions about membership only began in 2022. It will likely be years before a decision is made. Both Siljanovska Davkova and Pendarovski are in favor of joining the EU.