North Macedonia chooses between seven candidates for president

In North Macedonia, 1,814,317 voters will vote today for the election of the country’s president. These are the seventh presidential elections in North Macedonia and there are a record number of candidates – seven, reports a BTA correspondent.

In the 20-day election campaign, which in recent days overlapped with the election campaign for the parliamentary elections in the country, Stevo Pendarovski (SDSM), Gordana Silyanovska (VMRO-DPMNE), Stevcho Yakimovski (GROM), Buyar Osmani (DSI), Bilyana Vankovska (Left), Arban Taravari (coalition of Albanian opposition parties “Deserve”) and Maksim Dimitrijevski (ZNAM) held only one common debate, and one of the main topics in the campaign was changes to the constitution as a condition in the country’s negotiating framework with the EU .

The position of Gordana Siljanovska remained unclear. In an interview with MRT on the eve of the day for reflection, she indicated the options “for solving the problem with Bulgaria”, which would open the country’s negotiations with the EU.

In her words, “there may be a decision by the new authorities in Bulgaria (and) by the new rulers in North Macedonia with the help of the new authorities in Europe for a “Solomon solution”, which could be an interpretation of the Friendship and Good Neighbor Treaty, through an annex or another document to it, in which it will be written that the differences and disagreements between the two countries will not be used as a veto by Bulgaria”.

And the other way, according to Siljanovska, is for “representatives from the new European Parliament or the European Commission to explain to the EU that Bulgaria uses issues related to identity as a condition for North Macedonia’s membership, which violates the principles of the EU”.

According to her, “even the EP can start a case before the Luxembourg court, which protects European law, against Bulgaria”.

According to Bilyana Vankovska, the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborship with Bulgaria should be denounced, as well as the treaty with Greece, and the country should adopt a new, civilian constitution.

For Maksim Dimitrijevski, the constitutional changes should be accepted, but they should come into force after North Macedonia becomes a member of the EU.

Stevcho Yakimovski believes that the country can set its own conditions before the EU, and changes in the constitution can happen “after the issues of language, identity and Bulgaria’s claims that Macedonians were Bulgarians before 1944 are resolved”.

For Arben Taravari, guarantees from the EU are needed that this will be the last condition for North Macedonia, while according to Stevo Pendarovski and Buyar Osmani, changes to the constitution must be adopted in order to use the “open window” for EU enlargement.

The vote for the seven candidates for the president of North Macedonia will be held in 3480 sections in the country, and yesterday the vote was held for 2571 citizens who said they would vote in 31 diplomatic missions of North Macedonia, as well as the sick and infirm, deprived of freedom and the residents of nursing homes, and the results of the voting will become clear after the end of the election day.

The State Election Commission has issued accreditations for 915 local, 544 international observers and 58 foreign journalists.

Election day starts at 7:00 a.m. and ends at 7:00 p.m. local time, and the day is declared a non-working day by government decision.

The candidate who won an absolute majority of the total number of voters entered in the electoral roll is considered elected in the first round of the presidential elections.

If this condition is not met, the two presidential candidates who have the most votes go to a second round of elections, which will be held together with the parliamentary elections on May 8.