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2024 North Macedonian presidential election

← 2019 24 April 2024 (first round) 8 May 2024 (second round) 2029 →
Turnout	49.91% (first round) 8.24pp 47.47% (second round) 0.81pp
Nominee Gordana Siljanovska Stevo Pendarovski Party VMRO-DPMNE SDSM Alliance Your Macedonia For a European Future Popular vote 561,000 251,899 Percentage 69.01% 30.99%
First round results by municipality Second round results by municipality
President before election Stevo Pendarovski SDSM Elected President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova VMRO-DPMNE

Politics of North Macedonia
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Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister: Timčo Mucunski Diplomatic missions of / in North Macedonia Nationality law Passport Visa requirements Visa policy EU accession NATO accession Naming issue Negotiator: Nikola Dimitrov Special Envoy: Vlado Bučkovski
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v t e

Presidential elections were held in North Macedonia on 24 April 2024. Incumbent Stevo Pendarovski of the ruling centre-left Social Democrats ran for re-election to a second term.

No candidate received a majority of votes in the first round, with right-wing challenger Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova placing first by a wide margin with 41% of the vote, while Pendarovski finishd second with 20% of the vote. The two faced off in the second round run-off on 8 May, which was held alongside parliamentary elections. In the second round, Siljanovska defeated the incumbent Pendarovski with 69% of the vote and became the first woman to be elected president of North Macedonia. She was inaugurated on 12 May.

Electoral system

The President of North Macedonia is elected using a modified two-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. In the second round, voter turnout must be at least 40% for the result to be deemed valid. 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%, as the then-government feared the trend of reducing turnouts would lead to presidential elections being frequently invalidated. In the 2009 presidential elections, second round turnout was just 42.6%.

In order to contest the election, potential candidates are required to collect signatures from at least 10,000 registered voters or 30 MPs.

The constitution mandates that the President must be over 40 years of age and have lived in the country for ten of the last fifteen years.

Campaigning began on 4 April 2024.

Candidates

1. Endorsed by SDSM. Also endorsed by LDP, DOM, NSDP, SDA, PEI, PDPR, PDT, POEN, VMRO-NP, SDU, DSVM, PP and SRM.
2. Endorsed by VMRO-DPMNE. Also endorsed by SPM.
3. Also endorsed by Macedonian Conservative Party INTEGRA
4. Also endorsed by DPA, AA (Ziadin Sela faction), People's Movement, European Democratic Party, Union of the Roma, DPT, Movement of Turks for Justice and Democracy and Bosniak Democratic Union
5. Endorsed by The Left
6. Endorsed by Coalition "Worth" (Albanian: Vlen), which includes Besa, Alternative, Democratic Movement and the Arben Taravari faction of Alliance for Albanians

Failed to collect enough signatures

1. Member of VMRO-DPMNE who has announced his run without his party's endorsement

Dropped out

Campaign

Stevo Pendarovski supported revising the constitution to include recognition of a Bulgarian minority in North Macedonia, a condition set by Bulgaria to allow the country's accession to the European Union. Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova called for negotiations with the EU under a new framework and for such amendments to be made after North Macedonia attains EU membership. Pendarovski called on fighting corruption through taking on organized criminal groups, while Siljanovska-Davkova focused on the judiciary in her anti-corruption stance.

Following the first round, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova said "the hour has come for this government to go" and described the results as a "new course". She also called on voters to prove "that we have always (belonged to) Europe". Stevo Pendarovski expressed surprise and disappointment with the result, but expressed hope for improvement in the second round, including with the support of the Albanian community.

The Democratic Union for Integration, which represents ethnic Albanians and supported former Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani as a presidential candidate, offered its support in the second round to any candidate who supports having the President selected by the Assembly of North Macedonia in future elections, in the hopes of having an ethnic Albanian attaining the office. However, both Pendarovski and Siljanovska-Davkova dismissed the proposal, saying it is democratic for the Presidency to be selected through direct voting.

Conduct

Polling in the first round opened at 07:00 on 24 April and lasted until 19:00 at 3,480 polling stations nationwide. About 1.8 million people were eligible to vote, while around 2,300 domestic and international observers monitored the proceedings.

Opinion polls

First round

Polling firm	Date	Sample size
			Pendarovski	Siljanovska	Taravari	Osmani	Dimitrievski	Vankovska	Jakimovski
			SDSM	VMRO-DPMNE	ASh	BDI	ZNAM	Levica	GROM
Election Results	24 Apr 2024	881,039	20.5	41.2	9.5	13.7	9.5	4.7	0.9
IPIS	Apr 2024	1,200	23.8	39.0	10.7	11.5	7.7	5.5	1.6
CRPC	8–13 Apr 2024	1,210	28.8	35.0	13.6	11.5	4.6	4.5	2.1
МКД.мк	15–24 Mar 2024	1,200	19.8	36.5	10.5	14.3	12.1	4.9	1.5
CRPC	4–7 Mar 2024	1,085	29.3	35.5	14.3	9.6	5.1	4.3	2.0
IPIS	20 Feb 2024	1,212	22.3	39.2	13.4	12.2	5.8	6.4	–
2019 election		–	44.8	44.2	11.1	–	–	–	–

Second round

Polling firm	Date	Sample size
			Pendarovski	Siljanovska
			SDSM	VMRO-DPMNE
Election Results	8 May 2024	812,899	31.0	69.0
МКД.мк	15–24 Mar 2024	1,200	44.2	55.8
2019 election		–	53.6	46.4

1. Poll conducted before any candidates qualified to be on the ballot
2. Combined results for ASh and the VLEN coalition
3. Different candidate (Blerim Reka), endorsed by all parties of the VLEN coalition except Democratic Movement, which did not exist in 2019

Results

Aftermath

Following the release of the results, Stevo Pendarovski conceded defeat, while Siljanovska-Davkova acknowledged her being the first woman to be elected as president of North Macedonia and pledged to "stand with women in taking this great step forward, a step towards reform."

According to international observers, the elections were "competitive and an extensive and pluralistic campaign helped voters to make an informed choice, but marred by negative rhetoric with nationalistic slogans, as well as shortcomings in the legislation and insufficient oversight of campaign finances".

Reactions

•  Croatia — Prime Minister Andrej Plenković congratulated Siljanovska-Davkova on her victory.
•  European Union — Ambassador David Geer congratulated Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova for her election, noting that he is "looking forward to working closely with her for the European future of the country." In addition, Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, congratulated Siljanovska-Davkova and highlighted the need "to speed up the necessary reforms to move forward in the EU accession negotiation process."
•  Hungary — Prime Minister Viktor Orbán congratulated Siljanovska-Davkova and her VMRO-DPMNE on their "well-deserved and historic victory" in the presidential and parliamentary elections. Orban added that he looked forward to working together on giving North Macedonia a "new momentum to the EU accession process".
•  Serbia — President Aleksandar Vučić congratulated Siljanovska-Davkova, saying that he was "confident that we will together continue to work on strengthening Serbia-Macedonia ties".
•  Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Siljanovska-Davkova and expressed optimism in cooperating with North Macedonia to ensure peace and stability in Europe.
•  United States — Ambassador Angela Aggeler expressed her "heartfelt congratulations" to Siljanovska-Davkova on her "historic election as the first female President." She also extended her congratulations "to all those citizens who exercised their right to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections."

Notes

1. Endorsed by The Left

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v t e Elections and referendums in North Macedonia
Presidential elections	1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Parliamentary elections	1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2008 2011 2014 2016 2020 2024
Local elections	1990 1996 [mk] 2000 [mk] 2005 [mk] 2009 [mk] 2013 2017 2021 [mk] 2025
Referendums	1991 2004 2018
See also: Elections in Yugoslavia

• 2024 elections in Europe
• 2024 in North Macedonia
• April 2024 events in North Macedonia
• May 2024 events in North Macedonia
• Presidential elections in North Macedonia