In the first round of the presidential elections held yesterday in North Macedonia, according to the preliminary results, she won the most votes Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, candidate of the coalition of the Macedonian opposition conservative party VMRO DPMNE. In the second round of voting, she will most likely face the current president and the candidate of the ruling Social Democratic Alliance. Steve Pendarovski.
Based on 59 percent of the counted votes, 37,55 percent of the voters voted for Siljanovska Davkova, while Pendarovski won 18,51 percent of the votes. For Bujara Osmanija, candidate of the ethnic Albanian party DUI, according to preliminary results, 15,85 percent of voters voted.
In the first round of presidential elections, seven candidates competed for the position of head of state. The expected second round of presidential elections is scheduled together with parliamentary elections on Wednesday, May 8.
President of the State Election Commission (SEC) Aleksandar Dashptevski he said last night that the turnout by 18.30:48,6 p.m., half an hour before the polls closed, was XNUMX percent.
Five years ago, Pendarovski defeated Siljanovska Davkova in the second round of elections with 435.656 votes (51,65 percent) to 377.346 (44,75 percent).
However, in the last few years, VMRO-DPMNE has seen an increase in support due to public dissatisfaction with the slow progress of this Balkan country towards joining the European Union. Although the office of the president is largely ceremonial, the opposition hopes to gain momentum for a more important vote for parliament.
"The party that wins the first round will have an easier time mobilizing voters in the second round and during the parliamentary vote," a political analyst told Reuters. Petar Arsovski.
North Macedonia's bid to join the EU was greeted with optimism in 2005, but 19 years later, progress has been slow, partly due to opposition from EU members Greece and Bulgaria.
After voting in Skopje, Pendarovski said that the elections are particularly important for the whole of North Macedonia, because a country that is negotiating with the EU must not allow itself a bad election process.
"After voting, Siljanovska-Davkova said that national identity and cultural issues should be excluded from EU membership negotiations. "Otherwise, we (the countries of the Western Balkans) will be exotic countries that will wait, wait, wait, and I'm afraid that they (the EU) will not welcome us," she added.
Prime Minister of North Macedonia Talat Jaferi he assessed, after voting, that these elections are of great importance because the direction in which the country will move depends on them, and he expressed his belief that the citizens will confirm the European path. "In these three decades of the country's independence, the basic commitment is that the country and its citizens seek EU membership, and we are obliged to provide it. Of course, the citizens will confirm this by voting in the elections. Bearing in mind the global situation, but also the situation in the region, I believe that the majority of citizens will express this through the voting process", said Dzaferi.
A 2017 agreement to change the country's name from Macedonia to North Macedonia ended the dispute with Greece, but Bulgaria vetoed it in 2020 over history and language issues, which many North Macedonians see as an attack on their national identity.
In 2001, NATO prevented North Macedonia from falling into civil war during the Albanian rebellion and promised faster integration into the EU and NATO, Reuters recalls. North Macedonia joined NATO in 2020.
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