Macedonian general election, 2014

Macedonian presidential election, 2014

13 and 27 April 2014

Nominee Gjorge Ivanov Stevo Pendarovski Party VMRO-DPMNE SDSM Popular vote 534,910 398,077 Percentage 55.28% 41.14%

President before election Gjorge Ivanov VMRO-DPMNE Elected President Gjorge Ivanov VMRO-DPMNE

Macedonian parliamentary election, 2014

27 April 2014

All 123 seats to the Sobranie   First party Second party   Leader Nikola Gruevski Zoran Zaev Party VMRO-DPMNE SDSM Leader since 2002 2013 Last election 56 seats 42 seats Seats won 61 34 Seat change 5 8 Popular vote 481,615 283,955 Percentage 42.98% 25.34%

Prime Minister before election Nikola Gruevski VMRO-DPMNE Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski VMRO-DPMNE

General elections^[a] were held in the Republic of Macedonia in April 2014 to elect the President and members of parliament. The first round of the presidential elections were held on 13 April, with incumbent president Gjorge Ivanov getting the lead with 52% of the vote. However, as he did not receive the support of 50% of all registered voters, a second round was held on 27 April, alongside parliamentary elections, with Ivanov and the ruling coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE claiming victory.^[1][2]

Background

The parliamentary election was brought forward to coincide with that of the president following VMRO-DPMNE and DUI's failure to agree on a combined presidential candidate.^[3]

President

Candidates

The incumbent president Gjorge Ivanov, supported by the governing party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), successfully nominated himself for reelection after collecting 63,253 signatures from Macedonian citizens.^[4] The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia candidate Stevo Pendarovski was nominated by the signatures of the opposition parties' members of parliament.^[5] Other candidates nominated by over 10,000 signatures included Zoran T. Popovski from the Citizen Option for Macedonia, and Ilijaz Halimi from the Democratic Party of Albanians.^[6][7]

Campaign

The first round of the presidential election was held on 13 April. The candidates were Gjorge Ivanov (VMRO-DPMNE), Stevo Pendarovski (SDSM), Ilijaz Halimi (DPA), and Zoran Popovski (GROM). The ethnic Albanian party Democratic Union for Integration, a junior coalition member, campaigned for boycott of the presidential election, opposing VMRO-DPMNE's decision to run Ivanov for reelection.^[8]

SDSM's Pendarovski controversially visited Pristina where he criticised the government policies in terms of foreign policy and that Albania has the highest GDP in the region despite reports by institutions and other politicians saying it was Macedonia.^[9]

Parliament

Parties and coalitions

Fourteen political parties and coalitions contested the election, having submitted candidate lists for MPs in at least one of the six constituencies within the country and the three in the diaspora. Three among them, namely, VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM and DUI, submitted their candidate lists in all nine constituencies.^[10]

VMRO-DPMNE

The VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition consisted of 22 parties: VMRO-DPMNE, the Socialist Party of Macedonia, the Democratic Union, Democratic Renewal of Macedonia, the Democratic Party of Turks, the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia, the Union of Roma in Macedonia, the United Party for Emancipation, the Party of Justice, the Party of the Democratic Action of Macedonia, the Party of the Vlachs from Macedonia, the Party for Integration of the Roma, the Bosniak Democratic Party, Democratic Forces of the Roma, Permanent Macedonian Radical Unification, the New Liberal Party, the People's Movement for Macedonia, VMRO–Democratic Party, VMRO-United, Fatherland's Macedonian Organisation for Radical Renewal–Vardar–Aegean–Pirin TMORO – VEP, Macedonian Alliance, and VMRO – Macedonian.^[11]

SDSM

The SDSM-led coalition included nine parties; the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, the New Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, United for Macedonia, the Party for the Movement of Turks in Macedonia, the Party for the Full Emancipation of the Roma of Macedonia, the Serbian Party in Macedonia, the Democratic Alliance of Vlachs, and the Sandžak List.^[11]

GROM

The Citizen Option for Macedonia (GROM)-led alliance consisted of the Citizen Option for Macedonia, the Liberal Party, the Serbian Progressive Party in Macedonia, the Union of Tito's Left Forces, and the Party of Free Democrats.^[11]

Campaign

SDSM's Zoran Zaev said that the election was about "choosing whether [Macedonians] will support the fight for freedom and the right to a better life, or continue with state robbery."^[12] Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said: "We need a majority so nobody can blackmail us and we can keep up with the programme...that would lead Macedonia into the EU and NATO."^[3]

Opinion polls

President

Poll source	Date	Sample size	Ivanov VMRO-DPMNE	Pendarovski SDSM	Halimi DPA	Popovski GROM	None	Undecided
Center for Information and Research (CIG)[13]	March 2014	2,400	29.3%	19.4%	6.1%	-	8.7%	35%
Center for Research and Analysis[14]	March 2014	1,839	42.2%	19.7%	5.2%	5.4%	9.1%	18.4%
Election Results	13 April 2014	869,137	51.7%	37.5%	2.2%	1.8%

Parliament

Poll source	Date	Sample size	VMRO-DPMNE	SDSM	DUI	DPA	NDR	GROM
Dimitrija Čupovski[15]	January 2014	1,530	59	36	15	7	1	2
Dimitrija Čupovski[16]	April 2014	1,500	63	31	15	10	1	–

Monitoring and external influence

The second round of the election had accreditations given to 9,952 domestic and 550 foreign observers, as well as 283 translators, according to the State Election Commission.^[17]

The United States and European Union had publicly urged political leaders to ensure the election was "credible and transparent," amidst complains by the SDSM.^[12]

Results

President

In second round voting, centres were open from 5:00 GMT to 17:00 GMT. Turnout was reported as 9.58% in the first three hours.^[12]

Gjorge Ivanov was re-elected, having won 55.28% of the total votes.^[18] Following the election, Stevo Pendarovski called for an investigation of the election by external observers.^[19]

Candidate	Party	First round		Second round
		Votes	%	Votes	%
Gjorge Ivanov	VPMO-DPMNE	449,442	51.69	534,910	55.28
Stevo Pendarovski	Social Democratic Union	326,164	37.51	398,077	41.14
Ilijaz Halimi	Democratic Party of Albanians	38,966	4.48
Zoran T. Popovski	Citizen Option for Macedonia	31,368	3.61
Invalid/blank votes		23,677	–	34,707	–
Total		869,547	100	967,676	100
Registered voters/turnout		1,779,572	48.86	1,779,572	54.36
Source: SEC

Parliament

The incumbent government, led by VMRO-DPMNE, won 42.98% of the votes to claim victory ahead of SDSM with 25.34% and DUI with 13.71%. The 123 seats in the Sobranie were won by six political parties and coalitions with VMRO-DPMNE winning 61 seats, SDSM winning 34 seats, DUI winning 19 seats, DPA winning 7 seats and GROM and NDP winning 1 seat each.^[20]

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
VPMO-DPMNE coalition	481,615	42.98	61	+5
Social Democratic Union coalition	283,955	25.34	34	−8
Democratic Union for Integration	153,646	13.71	19	+4
Democratic Party of Albanians	66,393	5.92	7	−1
Citizen Option for Macedonia coalition	31,610	2.82	1	New
National Democratic Revival	17,783	1.59	1	−1
VMRO–People's Party	16,772	1.50	0	0
Coalition for a Positive Macedonia	10,566	0.94	0	New
Dignity	9,265	0.83	0	New
Social Democratic Party	4,700	0.42	0	0
Party for a European Future	3,194	0.29	0	New
Popular Movement for Macedonia	1,925	0.17	0	New
Party for Economic Change 21	1,281	0.11	0	New
Party for Democratic Prosperity	385	0.03	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	37,654	–	–	–
Total	1,120,744	100	123	0
Registered voters/turnout	1,780,128	62.96	–	–
Source: SEC

Reactions

After voting ended the SDSM's Zoran Zaev said that "SDSM and our opposition coalition will not recognise the election process, neither the presidential nor the parliamentary." He accused the government of "abusing the entire state system."^[21] It followed reports that Gruevski had warned that the SDSM was preparing, as an alibi, to react in such a manner to the election because they were due to lose the election.^[22]

Notes

• ^a The term "general elections" is used to refer to the presidential and parliamentary elections that were, incidentally, held on the same date since the Republic of Macedonia has a parliamentary system in which both elections are held separately.

References

1. "Macedonia presidential election set for second vote". Agence France-Presse. Yahoo News Australia. 14 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
2. Kole Casule (6 March 2014). "Macedonia calls early parliamentary election for April 27". Reuters. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
3. "Macedonia wraps up voting in early parliamentary vote | News | DW.DE | 27.04.2014". DW.DE. 2014-04-13. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
4. "Масовна поддршка за Иванов: Собрани 63.253 потписи за неколку часа" (in Macedonian). Kurir.mk. 4 March 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
5. "СДСМ: Зад кандидатурата на Пендаровски стојат потписите на сите пратеници на СДСМ и коалиционите партнери". a1on.mk. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
6. "Илијаз Халими е кандидат на ДПА за претседател на Македонија". Sitel. 26 February 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
7. "Зоран Поповски веќе собра 10.000 потписи" (in Macedonian). Dnevnik. 17 February 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
8. Konstantin Testorides (13 April 2014). "Ethnic Albanians boycott Macedonia vote". Yahoo News. Associated Press. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
9. "Here is how Pendarovski January slanders his spine: In Prishtina praises Kosovo and criticizes Macedonia | Macedonian News Agency". Kurir.mk. 2014-04-25. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
10. "Четиринаесет партии доставија листи на кандидати за пратеници". Utrinski.mk. 2014-03-30. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
11. The Republic of Macedonia's 2014 Parliamentary Elections Handbook Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
12. "PM tipped for third term as Macedonia votes - Europe". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
13. Pajaziti, Naser (19 March 2014). "Polls and surveys that favor presidential nominees". Independent Balkan News Agency.
14. "Poll: Highest trust ratings for President Ivanov and VMRO-DPMNE". Republika Online. 23 March 2014.
15. Анкета: ВМРО-ДПМНЕ со најголем број пратеници доколку утре има парламентарни избори, Kurir, 1 February 2014.
16. Анкета: ВМРО-ДПМНЕ со 63 пратеници, СДСМ со 31, Sitel, 22 April 2014.
17. "9952 domestic and 550 foreign observers will follow elections | Macedonian News Agency". Kurir.mk. 2014-04-25. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
18. "ДИК: Иванов 534.154 гласови, Пендаровски 398.008 | 24 ВЕСТИ". 24vesti.mk. 2014-04-15. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
19. "4471". Utrinski.mk. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
20. "4471". Utrinski.mk. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
21. Casule, Kole. "Macedonian opposition cries election foul, will not accept results | Reuters". Uk.reuters.com. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
22. "Scandalous: Zaev with fir scenario for failure of elections | Macedonian News Agency". Kurir.mk. 2014-04-25. Retrieved 2014-04-30.