site.btaNorth Macedonia Holds Presidential Elections

A total of 1,814,317 voters can cast their ballots on Wednesday in North Macedonia to elect the country's president. This is the seventh presidential election in North Macedonia with a record number of candidates - seven. 

In the 20-day election campaign, which in its last days overlapped with the election campaign for the parliamentary elections in the country, Stevo Pendarovski (backed by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, SDSM), Gordana Siljanovska (VMRO-DPMNE), Stevco Jakimovski (Citizens Option for Macedonia, GROM), Bujar Osmani (Democratic Union for Integration, DSI), Biljana Vankovska (Left), Arben Taravari (Alliance for Albanians, VLEN) and Maksim Dimitrievski (For Our Macedonia, ZNAM) held only one debate, and one of the main topics of the campaign were the constitutional changes, regarding the inclusion of Bulgarians in North Macedonia's Constitution, as a condition in the country's negotiation framework for EU accession.

Voting for the seven presidential candidates for North Macedonia took place in 3,480 polling stations across the country, and on Tuesday 2,571 citizens who have declared that they will vote in 31 diplomatic representations of North Macedonia, and the sick and infirm, the imprisoned and residents of nursing homes, cast their ballots and the results will be announced after the end of polling day. The State Election Commission has issued accreditations for 915 local observers, 544 international observers and 58 foreign journalists.

The government declared Election Day a non-working day.