SKOPJE (North Macedonia), April 16 (SeeNews) – North Macedonia will hold presidential elections on Sunday - the sixth vote for a head of state since the proclamation of independence from the former Yugoslav Federation in 1991 and the first since the change of the country’s name.
Three candidates are running for president: Stevo Pendarovski, nominated by the governing left-wing Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM), Gordana Siljanovska from opposition conservative party VMRO-DPMNE, and Blerim Reka, a candidate of ethnic Albanian opposition parties.
The current incumbent head-of-state Gjorge Ivanov is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term in office, having previously been elected in 2009 and 2014.
The vote in the country of over two million people will be organized by the state election commission and will be monitored by domestic and international observers including the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the U.S. embassy and the EU mission, the state election commission said earlier.
Macedonia and Greece signed an agreement to change the name of the former Yugoslav republic to North Macedonia in June 2018. The agreement and the constitutional amendments related to the change in the name officially entered into force in February 2019, opening the way for North Macedonia to join NATO and the European Union.
In February, NATO member states signed an accession protocol with Macedonia after the Alliance launched formal accession talks with the country on October 18.
Athens had blocked Skopje’s attempts to join NATO and the EU for 27 years over the country's name. According to Greece, the name Republic of Macedonia implies territorial claims to the Greek northernmost province of the same name.
North Macedonia was granted EU candidate status in 2015 and hopes to launch membership negotiations later this year.
Following are some key facts about the elections:
* The president is elected for a five-year term in office. Only people aged 40 and over are eligible for the post, which is largely ceremonial. The president proposes a prime minister to parliament and is commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces.
* The presidential elections will be held in two rounds, on April 21 and May 5. A candidate needs to win over 50% of the votes in the first round to become president, otherwise a run-off between the two frontrunners will be held two weeks later.
* Voter turnout in the second round of the elections should exceed 40% for the elections to be valid.
* Around 1.8 million people aged 18 and over are eligible to vote.
* The polling stations will be open from 7 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) until 7 p.m. (1800 GMT).
* In the 2014 elections, the VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gjorge Ivanov was re-elected for a five-year term on 55.25% of the ballots cast versus 41.17% for SDSM's candidate, Stevo Pendarovski.
* Kiro Gligorov was the first president of the newly independent country, serving from 1991 until 1999. He was succeeded by Boris Trajkovski, who died in a plane crash in Bosnia in February 2004. Trajkovski was succeeded by Branko Crvenkovski, a candidate of SDSM, in 2004.