You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Macedonian. (May 2024)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 49.91% (first round) 8.24pp 47.47% (second round) 0.81pp | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
|
North Macedoniaportal |
Presidential elections were held in North Macedonia on 24 April 2024. Incumbent Stevo Pendarovski of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats ran for re-election to a second term.
No candidate received a majority of votes in the first round, with right-wing challenger Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova placing first by a wide margin winning 41.2% of the vote, while Pendarovski received 20% of the vote coming in second place. The two faced off in the second round run-off on 8 May, [1] which was held alongside parliamentary elections. [2] [3] In the second round, Siljanovska defeated the incumbent Pendarovski by a wide margin and became the first woman to be elected as President of North Macedonia. [4] She was inaugurated on 12 May. [5]
The President of North Macedonia is elected using a modified two-round system; a candidate can only be elected in the first round of voting if they receive the equivalent of over 50% of the vote from all registered voters. [6] In the second round, voter turnout must be at least 40% for the result to be deemed valid. [7] Before 2009, the constitution required turnout in the second round to be 50% to validate the result. However, the XXXI amendment approved on 9 January 2009 lowered the threshold to 40%, [7] as the then-government feared the trend of reducing turnouts would lead to presidential elections being frequently invalidated. In the 2009 presidential elections, second round turnout was just 42.6%. [8]
In order to contest the election, potential candidates are required to collect signatures from at least 10,000 registered voters or 30 MPs. [9]
The constitution mandates that the President must be over 40 years of age and have lived in the country for ten of the last fifteen years.
Campaigning began on 4 April 2024. [10]
Ballot position [11] | Candidate | Affiliation | Declared intent to run | Signatures collected/endorsements [12] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Stevo Pendarovski (incumbent) | SDSM [lower-alpha 1] | 28 February 2024 [15] | 22,413 | |
2. | Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova | VMRO-DPMNE [lower-alpha 2] | 22 February 2024 [17] | 30 MPs | |
3. | Stevčo Jakimovski | GROM [lower-alpha 3] | 21 February 2024 [19] | 11,292 | |
4. | Bujar Osmani | Democratic Union for Integration [lower-alpha 4] | 22 February 2024 [21] | 11,085 | |
5. | Biljana Vankovska | Independent [lower-alpha 5] | 7 February 2024 [22] | 10,568 | |
6. | Arben Taravari | Alliance for Albanians [lower-alpha 6] | 15 February 2024 [23] | 10,708 | |
7. | Maksim Dimitrievski | ZNAM | 22 February 2024 [24] | 11,605 |
Candidate | Affiliation | Declared intent to run | Signatures collected [25] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Velo Markovski | Independent [lower-alpha 1] | 19 October 2023 [26] | 1,668 | |
Gospodin Poposki | Independent | 15 February 2024 [27] | 147 | |
Gjorgji Manaskov | Independent | 16 February 2024 [28] | 496 | |
Mersiha Smailović | Bosniak Democratic Union | 21 February 2024 [29] | 3,246 | |
Zorica Cvetkovska | Desna [30] | 24 February 2024 [31] | 293 | |
Goce Ristov | Independent | 4 March 2024 [32] | 6 | |
Dragan Nikolovski | Independent | 6 March 2024 [33] | 8 |
Candidate | Affiliation | Declared intent to run | Dropped out | Signatures collected (23 February) [34] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tome Nikoloski | Independent | 15 May 2023 [35] | 23 February 2024 [36] | 0 |
Stevo Pendarovski supported revising the constitution to include recognition of a Bulgarian minority in North Macedonia, a condition set by Bulgaria to allow the country's accession to the European Union. Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova called for negotiations with the EU under a new framework and for such amendments to be made after North Macedonia attains EU membership. Pendarovski called on fighting corruption through taking on organized criminal groups, while Siljanovska-Davkova focused on the judiciary in her anti-corruption stance. [37] [38]
Following the first round, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova said "the hour has come for this government to go" [39] and described the results as a "new course". She also called on voters to prove "that we have always (belonged to) Europe". Stevo Pendarovski expressed surprise and disappointment with the result, but expressed hope for improvement in the second round, including with the support of the Albanian community. [40] [41]
The Democratic Union for Integration, which represents ethnic Albanians and supported former Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani as a presidential candidate, offered its support in the second round to any candidate who supports having the President selected by the Assembly of North Macedonia in future elections, in the hopes of having an ethnic Albanian attaining the office. However, both Pendarovski and Siljanovska-Davkova dismissed the proposal, saying it is democratic for the Presidency to be selected through direct voting. [41]
Polling in the first round opened at 07:00 on 24 April and lasted until 19:00 at 3,480 polling stations nationwide. About 1.8 million people were eligible to vote, [42] [41] while around 2,300 domestic and international observers monitored the proceedings. [4]
Polling firm | Date | Sample size | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pendarovski | Siljanovska | Taravari | Osmani | Dimitrievski | Vankovska | Jakimovski | |||
SDSM | VMRO-DPMNE | ASh | BDI | ZNAM | Levica | GROM | |||
Election Results | 24 Apr 2024 | 881,039 | 20.5 | 41.2 | 9.5 | 13.7 | 9.5 | 4.7 | 0.9 |
IPIS | Apr 2024 | 1,200 | 23.8 | 39.0 | 10.7 | 11.5 | 7.7 | 5.5 | 1.6 |
CRPC | 8–13 Apr 2024 | 1,210 | 28.8 | 35.0 | 13.6 | 11.5 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 2.1 |
МКД.мк | 15–24 Mar 2024 | 1,200 | 19.8 | 36.5 | 10.5 | 14.3 | 12.1 | 4.9 | 1.5 |
CRPC | 4–7 Mar 2024 | 1,085 | 29.3 | 35.5 | 14.3 | 9.6 | 5.1 | 4.3 | 2.0 |
IPIS [lower-alpha 1] | 20 Feb 2024 | 1,212 | 22.3 | 39.2 | 13.4 [lower-alpha 2] | 12.2 | 5.8 | 6.4 | – |
2019 election | – | 44.8 | 44.2 | 11.1 [lower-alpha 3] | – | – | – | – |
Polling firm | Date | Sample size | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Pendarovski | Siljanovska | |||
SDSM | VMRO-DPMNE | |||
Election Results | 8 May 2024 | 812,899 | 31.0 | 69.0 |
МКД.мк | 15–24 Mar 2024 | 1,200 | 44.2 | 55.8 |
2019 election | – | 53.6 | 46.4 |
Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova | VMRO-DPMNE | 363,085 | 41.21 | 561,000 | 69.01 | |
Stevo Pendarovski | Social Democratic Union of Macedonia | 180,499 | 20.49 | 251,899 | 30.99 | |
Bujar Osmani | Democratic Union for Integration | 120,811 | 13.71 | |||
Maksim Dimitrievski | For Our Macedonia | 83,855 | 9.52 | |||
Arben Taravari | Alliance for Albanians | 83,337 | 9.46 | |||
Biljana Vankovska | Independent [lower-alpha 1] | 41,331 | 4.69 | |||
Stevčo Jakimovski | Citizen Option for Macedonia | 8,121 | 0.92 | |||
Total | 881,039 | 100.00 | 812,899 | 100.00 | ||
Valid votes | 881,039 | 97.29 | 812,899 | 94.39 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 24,560 | 2.71 | 48,289 | 5.61 | ||
Total votes | 905,599 | 100.00 | 861,188 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 1,814,317 | 49.91 | 1,814,317 | 47.47 | ||
Source: State Election Commission Round 1, State Election Commission Round 2 |
Following the release of the results, Stevo Pendarovski conceded defeat, while Siljanovska-Davkova acknowledged her being the first woman to be elected as president of North Macedonia and pledged to "stand with women in taking this great step forward, a step towards reform." [4]
According to international observers, the elections were "competitive and an extensive and pluralistic campaign helped voters to make an informed choice, but marred by negative rhetoric with nationalistic slogans, as well as shortcomings in the legislation and insufficient oversight of campaign finances". [43]
Politics in North Macedonia occur within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated North Macedonia a "flawed democracy" in 2022.
Kiro Gligorov was a Macedonian politician who served as the first president of the Republic of Macedonia from 1991 to 1999. He was born and raised in Štip, where he was also educated. He continued his education in Skopje and graduated in law in Belgrade. During World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia, he worked as a lawyer and participated in the partisan resistance. By the end of the war, he was an organiser of the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia, the predecessor of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia as a federal Yugoslav state.
The President of the Republic of North Macedonia is the head of state of North Macedonia.
Bulgarians are an ethnic minority in North Macedonia. Bulgarians are mostly found in the Strumica area, but over the years, the absolute majority of southeastern North Macedonia have declared themselves Macedonian. The town of Strumica and its surrounding area were part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria between the Balkan wars and the end of World War I, as well as during World War II. The total number of Bulgarians counted in the 2021 Census was 3,504 or roughly 0.2%. Over 100,000 nationals of North Macedonia have received Bulgarian citizenship since 2001 and some 53,000 are still waiting for such, almost all based on declared Bulgarian origin. In the period when North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia, there was also migration of Bulgarians from the so called Western Outlands in Serbia.
Gjorge Ivanov is a Macedonian politician, who served as the 4th President of North Macedonia from 2009 to 2019.
General elections[a] were held in the Republic of Macedonia in April 2014 to elect the President and members of parliament. The first round of the presidential elections were held on 13 April, with incumbent president Gjorge Ivanov finishing first with 53% of the vote. However, as he did not receive the support of 50% of all registered voters, a second round was held on 27 April, alongside parliamentary elections, with Ivanov and the ruling coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE claiming victory as Ivanov was elected president and the VMRO-DPMNE won 61 of the 123 seats in the Assembly.
Stevo Pendarovski is a Macedonian politician who served as the 5th President of North Macedonia from 2019 to 2024.
Eden na Eden is a Macedonian talk show that airs weekly on Kanal 5 TV. It is the highest rated talk show in the country and it is hosted by Žarko Dimitrioski, prominent media personality in Macedonia.
In April 2016, protests began in the Republic of Macedonia against the incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov and the government led by the interim Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev from the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party. Referred to by some as the Colorful Revolution, the protests started after the controversial decision by President Gjorge Ivanov to stop the investigation of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and dozens of politicians who were allegedly involved in a wiretapping scandal. The demonstrations were organized by "Protestiram" and supported by a coalition led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia and other opposition parties, in addition to the newly formed Levica demanding that the government resign and be replaced by a transitional government and that the parliamentary elections planned for 5 June 2016 be cancelled, on the grounds that the conditions for free and transparent elections were not in place. The government and its supporters, who had organized pro-government rallies, maintained that the elections on June 5 were the only solution to the political crisis, with some observers blaming the opposition for creating a "Ukraine scenario" in Macedonia.
Presidential elections were held in North Macedonia in 2019. Three candidates were on the ballot in the first round, held on 21 April: Stevo Pendarovski, supported by the ruling coalition led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, including the Democratic Union for Integration; Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova of the leading opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, and Blerim Reka, an independent supported by Albanian opposition parties Alliance for Albanians and Besa Movement. The first round did not result in an absolute majority for any candidate, with Pendarovski receiving the most votes. In the second round held on 5 May, Pendarovski defeated Siljanovska-Davkova with 54% of the vote.
Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is a Macedonian university law professor and jurist who has been the 6th President of North Macedonia since May 2024. She was a candidate for the 2019 presidential elections, losing to Stevo Pendarovski in the runoff. She ran again in the 2024 presidential elections and defeated Pendarovski by a landslide in a rematch election. She is North Macedonia's first female president.
The Democratic Union of the Vlachs of Macedonia is one of the two political parties of North Macedonia representing the Aromanian minority of the country, the other being the Party of the Vlachs of Macedonia (PVM). The president of the DSVM is Nikola Babovski. It was founded in 2002.
Dimitar Kovačevski is a Macedonian politician and economist who served as prime minister of North Macedonia from January 2022 to January 2024.
Parliamentary elections were held in North Macedonia on 8 May 2024. The slow pace of EU integration and corruption were the main issues of this election.
Elizabeta Gjorgievska is a Macedonian physician who is the wife of the fifth President Stevo Pendarovski and the former First Lady of North Macedonia.
Events in the year 2024 in Republic Of Macedonia.
For Our Macedonia is a political party in North Macedonia founded by former SDSM member and current Mayor of Kumanovo, Maksim Dimitrievski.