Seven candidates are running for president, including current president Stevo Pendarovski nominated by the governing left-wing Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM), and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova from opposition conservative party VMRO-DPMNE. Other candidates include Bujar Osmani from the Albanian Democratic Union of Integration (DUI), Biljana Vankovska Cvetkovska from the left-wing Levica party, Arben Taravari from the Alliance for the Albanians, Maksim Dimitrievski from ZNAM - Za Nasa Makedonija and Stevce Jakimovski from GROM.
The presidential elections will be held in two rounds, on April 24 and May 8, with the second round coinciding with the general elections. A candidate needs to win over 50% of the votes in the first round to become president, otherwise a run-off between the two frontrunners will be held two weeks later.
VMRO-DPMNE's Gordana Siljanovska Davkova and SDSM's Stevo Pendarovski are poised to go into a second round, according to the results of an opinion poll published by local NGO Center for Research and Political Communication (CRPC). According to the poll, 20.4% of respondents would vote for Siljanovska Davkova and 16.8% would support incumbent president Pendarovski, but 23.2% have not revealed their choice.
A total of 1,814,317 citizens are eligible to vote, according to data by the State Election Commission. North Macedonia has a population of 1.84 million, according to the results of the 2021 national census.
The polling stations will be open from 7 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) until 7 p.m. (1800 GMT). Wednesday will be a non-working day in the whole country due to the elections.
The president is elected for a five-year term in office. Only people aged 40 and over are eligible for the post, which is largely ceremonial. The president proposes a prime minister to parliament and is commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces.
In the 2019 elections, Stevo Pendarovski, nominated by SDSM, was elected for a five-year term on 51.66% of the ballots cast versus 44.73% for VRMO-DPMNE's candidate, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova.
Kiro Gligorov was the first president of the newly independent country, serving from 1991 until 1999. He was succeeded by Boris Trajkovski, who died in a plane crash in Bosnia in February 2004. Trajkovski was succeeded by Branko Crvenkovski, a candidate of SDSM, in 2004. Gjorge Ivanov served as the fourth president of North Macedonia in two terms from 2009 to 2019.
