Seven candidates are running in
North Macedonia for the presidential elections on April 24. The
deadline for collecting the 10,000 signatures needed to validate
their candidacy expired last midnight.
Those with the best chances seem to be outgoing President
Stevo Pendarovski, candidate of the ruling Social Democratic
Party (SDSM) who is running for a second five-year term, and
Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, a member of parliament and
professor at the Skopje Law School, who is a candidate of the
conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, the most significant opposition
force. The two had also challenged each other in the previous
2019 presidential election when Pendarovski won in the runoff.
The other candidates are Bujar Osmani, incumbent foreign
minister, candidate of the DUI, the most prominent Albanian
minority party participating in the governing coalition in
Skopje; Biljana Vankovska, professor at the Faculty of
Philosophy in Skopje, candidate of the Levica (Left) party;
Arben Taravari, mayor of Gostivar, candidate of the Albanian
'Vredi' party coalition (opposition); Maksim Dimitrievski, mayor
of Kumanovo, candidate of the new 'For Our Macedonia' party;
Stevco Jakimovski, head of a district in the capital, Skopje.
If none of the candidates gets 50 percent plus one vote in
the first round on April 24, the top two will go to a runoff on
May 8, the day legislative elections are scheduled in North
Macedonia.
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