There will be a second round of elections in North Macedonia. The incumbent president and an opposition leader passed by him

In North Macedonia, in the first round of the presidential elections, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, supported by the opposition, and incumbent President Stevo Pendarovski won the largest number of votes.

This was reported by the Macedonian service "Radio Liberty".

According to data after processing 89.98% of votes, Siljanovska-Davkova was supported by 39.9% of voters (more than 324 thousand people), and Pendarovski — by 19.9% (161 thousand).

Siljanovska-Davkova and Pendarovski go to the second round of elections, which will take place on May 8. They were already direct competitors in the presidential elections five years ago — in 2019.

Voter turnout was 49.75%, almost 811 thousand people came to vote.

• North Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership since 2005, but membership negotiations did not start until 2022.
• Both Siljanovska-Davkova and Pendarovski agree that their country should be a member of the EU. But they differed on how to respond to the insistence of neighboring Bulgaria, which is demanding that Skopje recognize the Bulgarian ethnic minority in its constitution. Bulgaria said it would otherwise block North Macedoniaʼs bid to join the bloc.