SKOPJE (North Macedonia), April 22 (SeeNews) – Stevo Pendarovski, the candidate of North Macedonia’s ruling left-wing Social Democratic Alliance (SDSM), took the lead in Sunday's presidential vote but fell short of outright victory and will face a runoff on May 5, the State Election Commission (SEC) said on Monday.
Pendarovski had to be backed by more than 50% of all eligible voters to avoid a runoff but won the support of only 42.85% of them, SEC data based on 99.96% of the ballots counted indicated.
In the second round of the elections, Pendarovski will face the candidate of opposition conservative party VMRO-DPMNE, Gordana Siljanovska, who was supported by 42.24%.
Blerim Reka, a candidate of ethnic Albanian opposition parties, won 10.57% of the votes.
Voter turnout stood at 41.82%. Turnout of at least 40% is required for the second round of the election to be valid.
Some 1.8 million voters were eligible to cast ballots in the presidential election choosing between the three candidates.
Sunday’s presidential elections was North Macedonia's sixth since the country proclaimed its independence from the former Yugoslav Federation in 1991 and the first since it changed its name.
The current incumbent head of state Gjorge Ivanov is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term in office, having previously been elected in 2009 and 2014.
Macedonia and Greece signed an agreement to change the name of the former Yugoslav republic to North Macedonia in June 2018. The agreement and the constitutional amendments related to the change in the name officially entered into force in February 2019, opening the way for North Macedonia to join NATO and the European Union.
In February, NATO member states signed an accession protocol with Macedonia after the Alliance launched formal accession talks with the country on October 18.
Athens had blocked Skopje’s attempts to join NATO and the EU for 27 years over the country's name. According to Greece, the name Republic of Macedonia implies territorial claims to the Greek northernmost province of the same name.
North Macedonia was granted EU candidate status in 2015 and hopes to launch membership negotiations later this year.