Voters go to the polls in North Macedonia this week for the first round of the presidential election \u2013 the seventh such vote since the small landlocked Balkan country gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Seven candidates are vying for the largely ceremonial position in Wednesday\u2019s vote. With more than 50 per cent of the country\u2019s 1.8 million registered voters needed for an outright win, the contest is almost certain to head to a second round, which will be held on May 8 along with parliamentary elections. Turnout must be at least 40 per cent in the second round for the result to be valid.<\/p>\n
The brief campaigning period has focused on North Macedonia\u2019s progress toward joining the European Union, the rule of law, fighting corruption, combating poverty and tackling the country\u2019s sluggish economy. The two front-runners, according to opinion polls, are incumbent President Stevo Pendarovski, 61, who is seeking a second five-year term with support from the governing social democrats, and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, 70, who is supported by the centre-right main opposition VMRO-DPMNE coalition. It will be the second time Siljanovska Davkova is seeking the presidency, after losing it to Pendarovski in 2019.<\/p>\n
The two have differed in their approach to North Macedonia\u2019s hot-button issue of EU membership. The country has been a candidate to join the European bloc since 2005, but was blocked for years by neighbouring Greece in a dispute over the country\u2019s name. That was solved in 2018, but Bulgaria has since been blocking North Macedonia\u2019s EU bid in a dispute over language and cultural heritage. Sofia has said it will only lift its veto to EU membership if Skopje recognises a Bulgarian minority in the country\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n
EU membership negotiations with North Macedonia \u2013 and fellow-candidate Albania \u2013 began in 2022 and the process is expected to take years. Pendarovski has called for the constitution to be changed to include the Bulgarian minority, while Siljanovska Davkova insists negotiations with the EU must be held under a new framework, and has remained publicly non-committal on the issue of the constitutional change.<\/p>\n
Pendarovski said that if given a second term, he would \u201cdedicate myself to building a politics of new realism on our way to the EU.\u201d Siljanovska Davkova agrees her country belongs in the EU, but insists on deep reforms. \u201cApart from reforms of the system and the mind, we also need vision, leadership and active commitment with expertise in the process itself,\u201d she said in presenting her program.<\/p>\n
Corruption is the other major issue on voters\u2019 minds. \u201cThere is an epidemic of corruption in this country that has affected every sector, every organisation, and only by exposing the corrupt actors can we begin to help the country address these issues,\u201d US Ambassador to Skopje Angela Aggeler said last December, when she announced the expansion of a US list with individuals suspected of corruption in North Macedonia.<\/p>\n
One of the presidential candidates \u2013 Stevcho Jakimovski, the mayor of Karpos, a municipality in the capital \u2013 is included on the list of people designated by the US State Department as being involved in corruption and therefore ineligible for entry into the United States. Jakimovski has not been charged with any crime in North Macedonia, and the state electoral commission has said the State Department designation does not affect his eligibility to run for office.<\/p>\n
Both Pendarovski and Siljanovska have emphasised the fight against corruption in their pre-election campaign. \u201cThe judiciary is far from independent, judicial reforms are partisan,\u201d Siljanovksa said. \u201cPower is abused for corruption, stealing and personal enrichment, and there is no accountability, investigation and punishment except for some of the lowest echelons. Public procurement is a cancer.\u201d Pendarovski said fighting crime was the highest priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that the power of organised crime was underestimated, and I regret it because there has not been enough courage and perseverance in the fight with organised crime and corruption,\u201d he said. Although the president has no power to influence executive decisions, he or she can suggest judges for the country\u2019s constitutional and supreme court. Parliament, however, has the final say on the judges\u2019 election.<\/p>\n
Other presidential candidates include law professor Biljana Vankovska, who\u2019s running for the leftist party Levica, and Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski of the northern town of Kumanovo. Two members of the country\u2019s ethnic Albanian minority are also running: current Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani from the Democratic Union of Albanians, which is part of the governing coalition, and Arben Taravari from an opposition ethnic Albanian party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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