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| Turnout | 41.67% (first round) 46.65% (second round) | ||||||||||||||||
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 Second round results by municipality | |||||||||||||||||
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Legislature |
 North Macedonia portal |
Presidential elections were held inNorth Macedonia in 2019. Three candidates were on the ballot in the first round, held on 21 April:Stevo Pendarovski, supported by the ruling coalition led by theSocial Democratic Union of Macedonia, including theDemocratic Union for Integration;[1]Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova of the leading opposition partyVMRO-DPMNE, andBlerim Reka, an independent supported by Albanian opposition partiesAlliance for Albanians andBesa Movement.[2] The first round did not result in an absolute majority for any candidate, with Pendarovski receiving the most votes. In the second round held on 5 May, Pendarovski defeated Siljanovska-Davkova with 54% of the vote.[3]
Incumbent PresidentGjorge Ivanov was constitutionally barred from seeking a third term in office, having previously been elected in2009 and2014.
The elections were the first in North Macedonia after thePrespa agreement on the naming dispute, signed on 17 June 2018. Areferendum was held on 30 September, in which a majority of voters approved the agreement, although turnout was far below the quorum required to validate the result, mainly because of an organized boycott of the Anti-Prespa agreement bloc. TheAssembly subsequently approved the change of the country's name to "North Macedonia" on 11 January 2019, and Greece subsequently ratified the agreement and the accession protocol for NATO.
Incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov was a vocal opponent of the name change and refused to sign the laws and amendments on the matter. However, Assembly SpeakerTalat Xhaferi claimed that his signature was enough to enforce the change.[4]
The name change had the support of the government coalition formed by theSocial Democrats (SDSM) and the ethnic AlbanianDemocratic Union for Integration. The nationalistVMRO-DPMNE coalition led byHristijan Mickoski was in favor of NATO integration but against the name change, although the change was approved in the Assembly with at least four VMRO-DPMNE MPs voting in favour.[5]
After her nomination, VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova had promised to initiate a second referendum and restore the old name to the country if she won.[6]
The President of North Macedonia is elected using a modifiedtwo-round system; a candidate can only be elected in the first round of voting if they receive the equivalent of over 50% of the vote from all registered voters.[7] In the second round, voter turnout must be at least 40% for the result to be deemed valid.[8] Before 2009, the constitution required turnout in the second round to be 50% to validate the result. However, the XXXI amendment approved on 9 January 2009 lowered the threshold to 40%,[8] as the then-government feared the trend of reducing turnouts would lead to presidential elections being frequently invalidated. In the2009 presidential elections, second round turnout was just 42.6%.[9]
Theconstitution mandates that the President must be over 40 years of age and have lived in the country for ten of the last fifteen years.
Before and between the voting rounds, several opinion polls were conducted. The percentages of the polls below are related to only those voters who declared that they would vote for a certain candidate.
First round
| Date(s) conducted | Polling firm/Client | Sample size/Type | Pendarovski/SDSM | Siljanovska/VMRO-DPMNE | Reka/AA,Besa | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8-14 Apr 2019 | Rating Agency | 1,112/Face-to-face | 45.5 | 39.5 | 15.0 | 6.0 |
| 7-11 Apr 2019 | IDSCS/Telma&MCMS | 967/Telephone | 44.1 | 38.1 | 17.8 | 6.0 |
| 4-10 Apr 2019 | M-Prospect/MRT | 1,197/Telephone | 43.2 | 38.8 | 18.0 | 4.4 |
| 10 Mar-10 Apr 2019 | Samerimpex Impulses/MCMS | 1,147/Online | 50.4 | 41.4 | 8.2 | 9.0 |
| 23-27 Mar 2019 | IPIS/Sitel | 1,110/Telephone | 45.9 | 42.7 | 11.3 | 3.2 |
| 13-19 Mar 2019 | M-Prospect/Telma&MCMS | 1,001/Telephone | 42.9 | 38.4 | 18.7 | 4.5 |
Second round
| Date(s) conducted | Polling firm/Client | Sample size/Type | Pendarovski/SDSM | Siljanovska/VMRO-DPMNE | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13-19 Mar 2019 | M-Prospect/Telma&MCMS | 1,001/Telephone | 55.3 | 44.7 | 10.6 |
To win in the first round, a candidate would have had to receive at least 904,066 votes, equivalent to 50% of the number of registered voters.
| Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
| Stevo Pendarovski | Social Democratic Union of Macedonia | 322,581 | 44.75 | 435,656 | 53.58 | |
| Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova | VMRO-DPMNE | 318,341 | 44.16 | 377,446 | 46.42 | |
| Blerim Reka | Independent | 79,888 | 11.08 | |||
| Total | 720,810 | 100.00 | 813,102 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 720,810 | 95.66 | 813,102 | 96.40 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 32,697 | 4.34 | 30,406 | 3.60 | ||
| Total votes | 753,507 | 100.00 | 843,508 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,808,131 | 41.67 | 1,808,131 | 46.65 | ||
| Source:OCSE | ||||||
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