The candidate of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova received the most votes in the first round of presidential elections in the Republic of North Macedonia. These are the official results announced by the State Election Commission. They are based on more than 99% of the counted ballots, BGNES reports.
362 617 people or 40.08% voted for Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova. For her main rival, the current head of state and candidate of the Social Democratic Union /SDSM/ Stevo Pendarovski, voted 180 253 people or 19.93%.
Third is the candidate of the largest Albanian party DSI and current Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani with 120 854 votes or 13.36%. The other Albanian but opposition candidate, Arben Taravari, received 9.21%. 83 328 people voted for him.
Maxim Dimitrievski of the ZNAM party received 83 781 votes or 9.26%, while 41 169 votes or 4.55% went to Biljana Vankovska of the Left Party. Presidential candidate Stevcho Jakimovski had less than one percent of voters.
The turnout was 49.97%. 1 814 317 citizens were eligible to vote. 904 656 of them voted. The number of invalid ballots was 24 533.
The second round of presidential elections in North Macedonia will be held on May 8 together with the parliamentary elections.
A total of 942 observers, including foreign journalists and interpreters, monitored the vote. /BGNES
