At stake in this Referendum:

• The referendum asked voters to vote for or against keeping the current 123 municipalities as determined by the Law on Territorial Division of the Republic of Macedonia and Determination of the Areas of Local Self-Government Units (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 49/1996) and the Law on the City of Skopje (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 49/1996).

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Branko CRVENKOVSKI
• Head of Government: Head of Government Hari KOSTOV
• 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.
• The 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 provisions in the Referendum:

• Referendum to alter the number of municipalities within Macedonia.* This referendum asked voters: "Are you for the territorial organization of the local self-government (the municipalities and City of Skopje) as determined by the Law on Territorial Division of the Republic of Macedonia and Determination of the Areas of the Local Self-Government Units (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia no. 49/1996) and the Law on the City of Skopje (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia no. 49/1996)

* If successful, the referendum effectively nullifies the law enacted by Parliament in August 2004 that reduced the number of municipalities from 123 to 84.

Electoral Requirements

• For the referendum to pass, a voter turnout threshold of 50% (plus one) had to be met and a majority of those votes had to be "yes".

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 2,038,444 (2004)
• Registered Voters: 1,709,536 (2004)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 1,021,312 (2004)

·         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: N/A

·         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: 305,766 (est.)