The current President of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, officially announced his candidacy for the presidential elections to be held on April 24, on Friday.
Pendarovski stated that he declared his candidacy after receiving public support from many citizens and various personalities to be nominated for another term as the head of state.
His candidacy will also have the support of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) in power, which had nominated him as a presidential candidate five years ago.
“The primary reason for my candidacy is that I am completing my term as president without any corrupt affairs, without any strategic mistakes, without any cases of nepotism related to my family or colleagues,” said Pendarovski.
“I was the national coordinator for NATO, and during my first term, we became a member of the Atlantic Alliance. During my second term, I expect us to become a member state of the European Union,” he said.
According to Pendarovski, interethnic relations remain the pillar of internal cohesion and stability, so he sought the support of all ethnic communities in the presidential elections.
“I am Macedonian, but in these five years of my term, there has not been a single case where my ethnic affiliation has been a reason to favor or degrade someone,” emphasized Pendarovski.
Commenting on the demand of Albanian parties that the president be elected by the Assembly in the future, Pendarovski said he was against such a request because the election of the president in the Assembly would not give the head of state the power derived from direct elections by the people.
“During my term, I have rejected several requests from political parties, and I am convinced that if I had been elected in the Assembly, on that day I would be removed from the position of president,” said Pendarovski.
In addition to Pendarovski, eight other candidates have announced their candidacies for the presidential elections, but so far, only Bujar Osmani, the candidate of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), Arben Taravari, the candidate of the united Albanian opposition, Biljana Vankovska from the Left party, and Maksim Dimitrievski from the ZNAM Party (For Our Macedonia) have collected the necessary 10,000 signatures to participate in the electoral race.
The opposition party VMRO-DPMNE will announce the candidacy of Biljana Siljanovska-Davkova on Saturday, March 2.
The deadline for submitting candidacies for the presidential elections expires on March 8.
Presidential elections in North Macedonia will be held in two rounds, the first on April 24, and the second round will be held together with parliamentary elections on May 8.
