At stake in this election:

• 120 seats in the Assembly (Sobranie)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Gjorge IVANOV
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Nikola GRUEVSKI
• Assembly: Macedonia has a unicameral Assembly (Sobranie) with 120 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.
• The Prime Minister is elected by parliament.
• In the Assembly (Sobranie) 120 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.***

*** The country is divided in 6 electoral districts,with a district magnitude of 20 members. No legal threshold is required for a party to enter the parliament. Votes are tabulated using the D'Hondt formula. At least 30 percent of the candidates on each party list must be of different gender

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) / Внатрешна македонска револуционерна организација – Демократска партија за македонско национално единство
  • Leader: Nikola GRUEVSKI
  • Seats won in last election: 63
• Party: Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) / Социјалдемократски сојуз на Македонија
  • Leader: Branko CRVENKOVSKI
  • Seats won in last election: 18
• Party: Democratic Union for Integration (BDI/DUI) / Демократска унија за интеграција
  • Leader: Ali AHMETI
  • Seats won in last election: 16

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 2,065,888 (2011)
• Registered Voters: 1,821,122 (June 2011)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 1,036,847 (2011)

·         Is Macedonia a signatory to CEDAW: N/A

·         Has Macedonia ratified CEDAW: Yes, succesion (18 January 1994)

·         Gender Quota: Yes

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 34 (following the 2011 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 81 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Medium (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Macedonia a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has Macedonia ratified CRPD: Yes (29 December 2011)

·         Population with a disability: 309,883 (est.)