Meanwhile, VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova will become the country’s first female president — a largely ceremonial position — having won 64.9 percent support with 87 percent of the votes counted, the results showed.
Voters in the tiny Balkan country of 2 million have expressed frustration with corruption, the slow pace of reform, and the sluggish advance of North Macedonia’s bid to join the European Union.
In 2018 the country reached a historic agreement, changing its name and constitution and ending a decades-long dispute with Greece. The deal allowed Skopje to join NATO in 2020; for the past two years, however, Bulgaria has blocked North Macedonia’s EU bid, demanding its constitution be amended to acknowledge the country’s Bulgarian minority.
