North Macedonia: The first round of presidential elections will be held tomorrow, Wednesday (23/4)

Correspondence, Skopje: Nikos Fragopoulos

Tomorrow, Wednesday (24/04), the first round of the presidential elections will be held in North Macedonia.

In these elections for the highest state office of the country seven candidates participateNevertheless none of them will get more than 50% which is required to elect a president from the first round, so it will follow Second roundtwo weeks later (on May 8), which will coincide with the parliamentary elections in the country.

According to all indications, in the second round of the presidential elections they will pass the candidate of the right-wing opposition VMRO-DPMNE, Gordana Silianovska and current president of North Macedonia and candidate of the ruling Social Democratic Party (SDSM), Stevo Pendarovski.

The 70-year-old Gordana Silianovska, according to the few opinion polls that have been carried out, is said to be the first to cut the thread of the first round of the presidential elections and indeed with a margin that could hardly be overturned by her opponent Stevo Pendarovski in the second round.

In the second round of the presidential elections, the attitude of the Albanian voters, who make up 25% of the North Macedonian electorate, could play an important role. 60-year-old Stevo Pendarovski has a greater appeal among Albanian voters than his opponent Gordana Silianovska and could only hope for re-election if he is voted in by them in the second round.

The electorate in North Macedonia amounts to approximately 1.8 million voters.

The president of North Macedonia has limited powers and performs mainly ceremonial duties.

Stevo Pendarovski was elected president of North Macedonia in the last presidential elections held in the country in May 2019, as a joint candidate of the ruling Social Democratic Party (SDSM) and the co-ruling Albanian party DUI. Stevo Pendarovski had won that election over the candidate of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, Gordana Silianovska.

The result of this first round of the presidential elections is expected to be reflected in the parliamentary elections on May 8, in which, according to all opinion polls, the VMRO-DPMNE leads by a large margin over the ruling Social Democratic Party, without however being in a position to form a self-governing government.