(23 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Skopje – 21 April 2024
1. Close of EU and North Macedonia’s flags in a rally
2. Young women holding EU and North Macedonia’s flags
3. Umbrellas of people arriving to a rally
4. A woman waving EU flag and singing
5. Stevo Pendarovski greeting supporters as drummers beat
6. SOUNDBITE (Macedonian) Stevo Pendarovski, current president, backed by ruling SDSM (Social-Democrats):
“After more than three decades of independence, I am convinced that Macedonian citizens can recognize very well whose program is real and who is out of step with the times in which we live.”
7. Pendarovski greeting the supporters as they chant his name
8. North Macedonian flag
9. Various of supporters holding the North Macedonia flag
10. Various of supporters waving flags and singing
11. SOUNDBITE (Macedonian) Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, candidate of the main opposition center-right VMRO-DPMNE coalition:
“A new reform phase will start and for that are really necessary smart, hard-working, dedicated and honest people.”
12. Various of Hristijan Mickoski, leader of the opposition center-right VMRO-DPMNE, left and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, second from left, attending rally
13. Siljanovska Davkova posing for a selfie
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Skopje – 22 April 2024
14. Election posters and street scene
15. Various of electoral posters for of presidential candidates Pendarovski and Siljanovska Davkova
16. Davkova poster displayed on a building
17. Electoral poster of Arben Taravari, presidential candidate from opposition ethnic Albanian party Vlen
18. Election posters displayed on overpass
19. Posters of current Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani from the (DUI) Democratic Union for Integration, left and Biljana Vankovska, who’s running for the leftist party Levica, right
20. Election poster of Pendarovski
21. Election poster of the presidential candidate Stevco Jakimovski, the mayor of Karpos, a municipality in the capital of Skopje
22. Various of electoral posters for Davkova
STORYLINE:
Voters go to the polls in North Macedonia on Wednesday for the first round of presidential elections – the seventh such election since the small landlocked Balkan country gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
Seven candidates are vying for the largely ceremonial position.
With more than 50% of the country’s 1.8 million registered voters needed for an outright win, the contest is almost certain to head to a second round, which will be held on May 8 along with parliamentary elections.
Turnout must be at least 40% in the second round for the result to be valid.
The brief, two-week campaigning period has focused on North Macedonia’s progress towards joining the European Union, the rule of law, fighting corruption, combating poverty and tackling the country’s sluggish economy.
The two front-runners, according to opinion polls, are incumbent President Stevo Pendarovski, 61, who is seeking a second five-year term with support from the governing social democrats, and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, 70, who is supported by the center-right main opposition VMRO-DPMNE coalition.
It will be the second time Siljanovska Davkova is seeking the presidency, after losing it to Pendarovski in 2019.
The two have differed in their approach to North Macedonia’s hot-button issue of EU membership.
The country has been a candidate to join the European bloc of countries since 2005, but was blocked for years by neighboring Greece in a dispute over the country’s name.
Corruption is the other major issue on voters’ minds as they head to the polls.
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