SKOPIE, North Macedonia — Voters will go to the polls in North Macedonia this week for the first round of presidential elections, 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 seat in Wednesday’s vote. With more than 50% of the country’s 1.8 million registered voters needed for an outright victory, the race will almost certainly move to a second round, to be held on May 8 alongside parliamentary elections. Participation must be at least 40% in the second round for the result to be valid.
The short campaign period has focused on North Macedonia’s progress towards accession to the European Union, the rule of law, fighting corruption, fighting poverty and combating the country’s sluggish economy.
The two favorites, according to opinion polls, are the current president Stevo Pendarovski, 61, who is seeking a second five-year term with the support of the ruling Social Democrats, and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, 70, who has the support of the center- The main right-wing opposition coalition, VMRO-DPMNE. It will be the second time that Siljanovska Davkova seeks the presidency, after losing it to Pendarovski in 2019.
The two have differed in their approach to the burning issue of North Macedonia’s EU membership. The country has been a candidate to join the European bloc since 2005, but was blocked for years by neighboring Greece in a dispute over the country’s name.
That was resolved in 2018, but Bulgaria has since been blocking North Macedonia’s EU bid in a dispute over language and cultural heritage. Sofia has said she will only lift her veto on EU membership if Skopje recognizes a Bulgarian minority in the country’s constitution.
EU membership negotiations with North Macedonia (and fellow candidate Albania) 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 that negotiations with the EU must be conducted under a new framework and has remained publicly evasive on the issue of constitutional change.
Pendarovski said that if given a second term, he would “dedicate himself to building a policy of new realism on our path to the EU.”
Siljanovska Davkova agrees that her country belongs to the EU, but insists on deep reforms. “Apart from system and mind reforms, we also need vision, leadership and active commitment with experience in the process itself,” she said while introducing her program.
Corruption is the other major issue on voters’ minds.
“There is an epidemic of corruption in this country that has affected all sectors, all organizations, and only by exposing corrupt actors can we begin to help the country address these problems,” said the US ambassador in Skopje, Angela Aggeler, last December, when she announced the expansion of a US list of people suspected of corruption in North Macedonia.
One of the presidential candidates, Stevcho Jakimovski, mayor of Karpos, a municipality in the capital, is included in the list of people designated by the US State Department as involved in corruption and therefore ineligible to enter USA.
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.
Both Pendarovski and Siljanovska emphasized the fight against corruption in their pre-election campaign.
“The judiciary is far from independent, judicial reforms are partisan,” Siljanovksa said. “Power is abused for corruption, theft and personal enrichment, and there is no accountability, investigation or punishment, except for some of the lowest levels. Public procurement is a cancer.”
Pendarovski said fighting crime was the top priority.
“I think the power of organized crime was underestimated, and I regret it because there has not been enough courage and perseverance in the fight against organized crime and corruption,” he said.
Although the president has no power to influence executive decisions, he can suggest judges for the country’s constitutional and supreme courts. However, Parliament has the final say on the election of judges.
Other presidential candidates include law professor Biljana Vankovska, who is running for the left-wing Levica party, and mayor Maksim Dimitrievski of the northern city of Kumanovo.
Two members of the country’s ethnic Albanian minority are also running: current Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani of the Democratic Union of Albanians, which is part of the ruling coalition, and Arben Taravari of an ethnic Albanian opposition party. .