In the presidential election in northern Macedonia, social democrat Stevo Pendarovski and Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova fought closely with each other from the nationalist opposition party. While Pendarovski got 42.6 percent of the votes, Siljanovska-Davkova was just 0.6 percent behind, according to the state election commission.
A ballot on May 5 should bring the decision. The poll is considered a test election for the Social Democrat government Zoran Zaev, after the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was renamed Northern Macedonia in February.
Former President Djordje Ivanov was not allowed to play again after two terms of office. Ivanov is credited with VMRO-DPMNE. Above all, the head of state has a representative function in northern Macedonia.
Test option for the government
Siljanovska-Davkova had sharply criticized the renaming of the country during the election campaign. At the same time, she declared that she wanted to respect the international agreements. With the renaming of the country the name dispute with Greece was settled. Athens had insisted since the independence of Macedonia 27 years ago that its northern neighbor change its name, because a region in the north of Greece is also named.
Pendarovski had again announced that he wanted to continue on his path towards EU and NATO integration. After the renaming, nothing stands in the way of accession of Macedonia to NATO, which had previously been blocked by Athens. The country hopes to be admitted to the European Union.