SKOPJE (Reuters) – North Macedonia's presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova has a huge lead over the incumbent stevo pendarovski Votes were counted in 99.03% of polling stations on Thursday, but neither candidate reached the 50% support needed for an outright victory.
According to the State Election Commission, Silyanovska Davkova of the right-wing VMRO-DPMNE party won 40.08% of the vote, compared to 19.93% for Pendarovsky, a pro-European party backed by the Social Democratic Party.
A run-off election between the two leading candidates will be held on May 8th along with the parliamentary election.
The largely ceremonial vote for the presidency was widely seen as a litmus test for parliamentary elections, with VMRO-DPMNE seeking to unseat the ruling pro-European faction and the centre-left Social Democratic Party.
“This is an incredible inspiration for me. … This is the end of the first round and the second round is coming,” said legal scholar and university professor Siljanovska Davkova, 70, in Skopje on Wednesday night. he told jubilant supporters.
VMRO-DPMNE has gained strength in recent years amid public anger over the slow pace of the Balkan countries' accession to the European Union, corruption and slow development.
“We made a mistake, but the people have said what they think about it,” Social Democratic Party leader Dimitar Kobachevsky told supporters in Skopje on Wednesday.
Bujar Osmani, a candidate from the Albanian DUI party, was running for third place with 13.36%.
“Parties that win in the first round will have an easier time mobilizing voters in the second round and in the parliamentary vote,” political analyst Petar Arsovsky said.
North Macedonia's candidacy for EU membership was greeted with optimism in 2005, but 19 years later little progress has been made, partly due to opposition from EU members Greece and Bulgaria.
Pendarovski, 61, described his election result as a defeat for pro-European forces, but said he would continue campaigning ahead of the May 8 run-off.
A 2017 agreement to change the country's name from Macedonia to North Macedonia ended the conflict with Greece, but Bulgaria vetoed it in 2020 over history and language issues, and many North Macedonians feel the issue is It claims to be challenging national identity.
In 2001, North Macedonia was pulled back from the brink of civil war by an ethnic Albanian rebellion by the Western NATO alliance, and the country was promised early integration into both the EU and NATO. It joined NATO in 2020.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Basovic and Fatos Vitisi; Editing by Jerry Doyle)
