TIRANA, May 7 – Stevo Pendarovski, the joint candidate of Northern Macedonia’s ruling coalition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, won the country’s presidential election winning 52 percent of the votes against opposition rival Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, who ranked second with only 44.5 percent of the electorate’s support.
The 56-year-old is officially Macedonia’s fifth president after the country’s secession from the former Yugoslav Federation and the first state leader of the newly named North Macedonia after the successful negotiation of the early dispute over the name issue with Greece.
The name dispute negotiations with Greece were the electoral campaign’s most argued topic among the parties competing.
This victory has been interpreted by political experts as very beneficial for the political credit of the ruling coalition, which expects to set a date for opening accession negotiations with the European Union in June, as well as receive a long-awaited accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) next year.
“The victory of this concept brings a future for the Republic of Northern Macedonia and is our ticket to Europe,” Pendarovski told the media after certifying the final election result.
In the first round of elections, Pendarovski managed to lead with a slight advantage of about 42 percent of the vote against Siljanovska, who ranked second with a very small difference.
Because of this almost equal result, experts have said, the ethnic Albanians’ vote played a decisive role in defining the victorious candidate.
“Turnout, ethnic Albanian vote key in North Macedonian polls” was the title of Washington Post article in the wake of the electoral results, mentioning also the participation of Albanian political Blerim Reka in the first round of elections, who ran as an independent electoral subject with the support of opposition parties “Alliance for Albanians” and “BESA.”
Reka came third with only 10.35 percent of the vote, automatically being disqualified from the next round, which took place this Sunday, on May 5.
Pendarovski has a rich biography with many years of academic experience in the field of international security, foreign policy and globalization. Upon completion of undergraduate studies, he was appointed head of the Analytical Sector at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Further, for a period of three years, he exercised the post of spokesman, equivalent, in other words, with the Assistant Minister for Public Relations, within the structures of a similar ministerial institution.
Although the president carries an honorary role mostly, he has the right to veto some of the areas set by the legislation. Pendarovski’s election excluded the destabilizing scenario of the announcement of early elections announced by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in the case of elections ending up with a narrow voting result, provided by the profoundly polarized climate between ruling social-democrats and opposition conservatives.
