Ivanov elected new president of Macedonia

6 april 2009

Gjorge Ivanov

On the 5th of April, the candidate of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, Gjorge Ivanov won the second round of the presidential election by getting 59,44% of the votes. Although the official results have to be awaited, it is clear that Ivanov will be Macedonian President for the next five years. The runner-up, Ljubomir Frckoski of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) got 34,69% of the votes. The threshold of 40% was just met, with a turn-out of 42,6%. The inauguration of Ivanov, who will follow up the current president Branko Crvenkovski, will be on the 9th of May.

 

In a first reaction Ivanov said this election “opens the European perspective for Macedonia.” Furthermore, he stressed that his priorities would be EU and NATO membership and solving the long-standing name dispute with Greece. His rival Frckoski conceded defeat and said, “now God help Macedonia!” The Social Democrats said the elections were peaceful but far from democratic, alleging numerous irregularities by the ruling party, including the pressuring of voters. Addressing the press on Monday the 6th of April, head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Peter Eicher stated the OSCE was “pleased to see a peaceful environment and a well administered election day, although some aspects of the campaign period seriously detracted from the overall quality of the election process.” Generally speaking the presidential and municipal elections met most OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections. This is very important for Macedonia in order to continue its EU integration process.  

Apart from the presidential elections, local elections were held. According to the first unofficial results for the second round, SDSM has won 5 municipalities and VMRO-DPMNE 55 plus the city of Skopje.   

Sources: BIRN, B92, NRC, OSCE and Radio Slobodna Evropa

 


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