At stake in this election:

• The office of President of Macedonia

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Ljubco JORDANOVSKI *
• Head of Government: Head of Government Branko CRVENKOVSKI
• Assembly: Macedonia has a unicameral Assembly (Sobranie) with 120 seats.

* Since the death of President TRAJKOVSKI, parliament speaker Ljubco JORDANOVSKI has been acting as the interim president.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.
• The Head of Government 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 Candidates in the Second Round of the Presidential race:

• Sashko KEDEV
  • Party: Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity
• Branko CRVENKOVSKI
  • Party: Social Democratic Union of Macedonia

Main Candidates in the First Round of the Presidential race:

• Branko CRVENKOVSKI
  • Party: Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM)
• Sashko KEDEV**
  • Party: Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE)
• Gzim OSTRENI
  • Party: Democratic Union for Integration (DUI)
• Zidi XHELILI
  • Party: Democratic Party of the Albanians (DPA)

** Candidates Branko CRVENKOVSKI and Sashko KEDEV will advance to the second round of elections on April 28, 2004.

Last Presidential election:

• The last presidential election was held on November 14, 1999. In this election, Boris TRAJKOVSKI of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) won the presidency with 52.4% of the votes.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 2,022,547 (2002)
• Registered Voters: 1,695,103 (2004)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 1,015,357 (2002)

·         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: 21 (following the 2002 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: 304,305 (est.)