At Stake in this Election:

• The Presidency of North Macedonia

The second round will be held concurrently with the Assembly election. The first round of the presidential election was held on 24 April 2024.

Government Structure:

• Chief of State: President Stevo PENDAROVSKI (since 12 May 2019)
• Head of Government: Caretaker Prime Minister Talat XHAFERI (since 28 January 2024)
• Assembly: unicameral Assembly (Собрание) with 120 seats

Electoral System:

• The President is directly elected in up to two rounds of voting. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must win an absolute majority of votes from all registered voters. To be elected in the second round, a candidate must win an absolute majority and voter turnout must be at least 40%, otherwise the result is deemed invalid. The President may serve up to two 5-year terms.
• In the Assembly, 120 members are directly elected via closed-list proportional representation vote from six constituencies. An additional 3 members may be elected from a single overseas constituency via proportional representation vote so long as the winning list receives at least as many votes as the MP elected with the fewest number of votes in the prior assembly election. All members serve renewable 5-year terms.

Last Election:

In the first round of the 2024 presidential election, Gordana SILJANOVSKA DAVKOVA (VMRO-DPMNE) won the largest share of the vote with 40.09% but did not meet the first round election threshold. Incumbent Stevo PENDAROVSKI (SDSM) came in second with 19.93% of the vote, also advancing to the second round. Voter turnout was 49.92%.

Information for Voters:

Instructions / Упатства / Udhëzime (in Macedonian and Albanian)

New/Unique in this Election:

Parliament approved a variety of updates to North Macedonia’s electoral code on March 7. One of the new provisions allows North Macedonians to vote with documents that expired up to 9 months ahead of elections, meaning that many can use passports and driver’s licenses containing the country’s old name, the Republic of Macedonia, as a valid ID. This change is a direct response to many voters’ inability to apply for and receive new documents with the name “Republic of North Macedonia” before their IDs with the old name expired on February 12 after the government was overwhelmed by requests. Without this change in policy, it is estimated that 100,000 North Macedonians would have been unable to vote.

Key Deadlines:

• Candidate filing deadline:  19 March 2024
• Voter registration deadline: Voter registration is passive for in-country voters.  For overseas voters, the registration deadline was 18 March 2024.

Main Candidates in this Election:

• Stevo PENDAROVSKI
  • Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM)
  • Incumbent
• Gordana SILJANOVSKA DAVKOVA
  • VMRO-DPMNE

Population and Registered Voters:

• Population: 2,057,680 (2022 est.)
• Registered Voters: 1,814,317 (2024)

Gender Data:

• Female Population: 1,032,060 (2022 est.)
• CEDAW Status: Ratified (by succession) 18 January 1994
• Gender Quota:  At least 40% of candidate slots on each party list must be occupied by members of the less represented gender. Also, if a woman MP leaves office before the end of her term, she will be replaced by the next female candidate from her party list.
• Female Candidates in this election: Yes
• Number of Female Legislators (pre-election): 51 out of 120 (42.5%) in the Assembly
• Human Development Index (HDI) Position: 0.765, High, Rank 83 (2024)
• Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: 22 (2023)

Disability Data:

• CRPD Status: Signed 30 March 2007, Ratified 29 December 2011
• Projected population with a disability: 329,229 (2022 est.)

IFES Resources:

• Does IFES have a presence in North Macedonia: Yes, office
• Election Access: Yes
• Election Judgements: Yes, 17 resources