Siljanovska crushed Pendarovski in the first round

In North Macedonia a second round of the presidential elections will be held, after neither candidate garnered enough votes to win outright in Wednesday’s first round as the country seeks to enter the European Union. AP reported this.

The second round of voting on May 8 will coincide with the parliamentary elections.

Almost complete results from Wednesday’s vote showed a strong swing in favor of the candidate supported by the center-right main opposition coalition VMRO-DPMNE.

With about 92% of the votes counted Gordana Siljanovska has a big lead of just under 40%. The current president, Stevo Pendarovski, who is seeking a second five-year term with the support of the country’s ruling social democrats, is on second place with nearly 20%according to the data of the State Election Commission.

Pendarovski is followed by the pro-government candidate from the ethnic Albanian minority, Foreign Minister Buyar Osmani, with 13.6%. Voter turnout was 49.75%.

To win outright, a candidate had to receive the support of more than 50% of registered voters. Thus, Gordana Siljanovska and Pendarovski will meet in the second round of the presidential elections.

In North Macedonia, there are high hopes that the president will work for the long-awaited entry into the EU.

The tiny Balkan country has been orbiting the 27-member bloc for nearly two decades, but has little to show for its efforts.

Addressing dozens of celebrating VMRO-DPMNE supporters outside the party’s headquarters in downtown Skopje late Wednesday, Gordana Siljanovska insisted on its pro-European messages.

“This is the beginning of a new era, this must be a new course, I must call it the European course,” she said. “Let us prove that we have always belonged to Europe.”

Pendarovski expressed his disappointment with the result. But he said he hoped to do better in the second round, including with the support of the country’s ethnic Albanian minority, which represents about a quarter of the population.

Seven candidates contested the largely ceremonial post, and the short campaign period was devoted to EU accession, the rule of law, the fight against corruption and poverty reduction.

The head of the electoral commission, Aleksandar Daštevski, said earlier on Wednesday that the voting went smoothly, with only a minor technical problem with the biometric devices in some polling centers, which was quickly removed.

70-year-old Gordana Siljanovska and 61-year-old Pendarovski agree that their country belongs to the EU. However, they differ on the issue of how to deal with neighboring Bulgaria’s insistence that Skopje write into its constitution the recognition of a Bulgarian ethnic minority. Bulgaria stated that otherwise will block North Macedonia’s candidacy for membership in the bloc.

North Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership since 2005, but membership negotiations did not start until 2022 and the process is expected to take years.

Voter Stavre Temelkovski said that he has high expectations that North Macedonia will soon become a full member of the EU.

“I expect the civil movement to win, for us to become part of all these pro-Western systems and to start a process of healing the state, which has been waiting for almost three decades now,” he said. “Many generations are exhausted.”