2014 Macedonian general election

General elections^[a] were held in the Republic of Macedonia in April 2014 to elect the President and members of parliament. The first round of the presidential elections were held on 13 April, with incumbent president Gjorge Ivanov finishing first with 53% of the vote. However, as he did not receive the support of 50% of all registered voters, a second round was held on 27 April, alongside parliamentary elections, with Ivanov and the ruling coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE claiming victory as Ivanov was elected president and the VMRO-DPMNE won 61 of the 123 seats in the Assembly.[1][2]

2014 Macedonian general election

13 April 2014 (first round) 27 April 2014 (second round)

Presidential election

Party VMRO-DPMNE SDSM Popular vote 534,910 398,077 Percentage 57.33% 42.67%

President before election Gjorge Ivanov VMRO-DPMNE Elected President Gjorge Ivanov VMRO-DPMNE

Parliamentary election

Party Leader % Seats ± VMRO-DPMNE Nikola Gruevski 44.47% 61 +5 SDSM Zoran Zaev 26.22% 34 -8 BDI Ali Ahmeti 14.19% 19 +4 PDSh Menduh Thaçi 6.13% 7 -1 GROM Stevčo Jakimovski 2.92% 1 New RDK Rufi Osmani 1.64% 1 -1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Prime Minister before Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski VMRO-DPMNE Nikola Gruevski VMRO-DPMNE

Background

The parliamentary elections were brought forward to coincide with the president elections following VMRO-DPMNE and DUI's failure to agree on a combined presidential candidate.[3]

President

Candidates

The incumbent president Gjorge Ivanov, supported by the governing party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), successfully nominated himself for reelection after collecting 63,253 signatures from Macedonian citizens.[4] The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia candidate Stevo Pendarovski was nominated by the signatures of the opposition parties' members of parliament.[5] Other candidates nominated by over 10,000 signatures included Zoran T. Popovski from the Citizen Option for Macedonia, and Ilijaz Halimi from the Democratic Party of Albanians.[6][7]

Campaign

The first round of the presidential election was held on 13 April. The candidates were Gjorge Ivanov (VMRO-DPMNE), Stevo Pendarovski (SDSM), Ilijaz Halimi (DPA), and Zoran Popovski (GROM). The ethnic Albanian party Democratic Union for Integration, a junior coalition member, campaigned for boycott of the presidential election, opposing VMRO-DPMNE's decision to run Ivanov for reelection.[8]

SDSM's Pendarovski controversially visited Pristina where he criticised the government policies in terms of foreign policy and that Albania has the highest GDP in the region despite reports by institutions and other politicians saying it was Macedonia.[9]

Parliament

Parties and coalitions

Fourteen political parties and coalitions contested the election, having submitted candidate lists for MPs in at least one of the six constituencies within the country and the three in the diaspora. Three among them, namely, VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM and DUI, submitted their candidate lists in all nine constituencies.[10]

VMRO-DPMNE

The VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition consisted of 22 parties: VMRO-DPMNE, the Socialist Party of Macedonia, the Democratic Union, Democratic Renewal of Macedonia, the Democratic Party of Turks, the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia, the Union of Roma in Macedonia, the United Party for Emancipation, the Party of Justice, the Party of the Democratic Action of Macedonia, the Party of the Vlachs from Macedonia, the Party for Integration of the Roma, the Bosniak Democratic Party, Democratic Forces of the Roma, Permanent Macedonian Radical Unification, the New Liberal Party, the People's Movement for Macedonia, VMRO–Democratic Party, VMRO-United, Fatherland's Macedonian Organisation for Radical Renewal–Vardar–Aegean–Pirin TMORO – VEP, Macedonian Alliance, and VMRO – Macedonian.[11]

SDSM

The SDSM-led coalition included nine parties; the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, the New Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, United for Macedonia, the Party for the Movement of Turks in Macedonia, the Party for the Full Emancipation of the Roma of Macedonia, the Serbian Party in Macedonia, the Democratic Alliance of Vlachs, and the Sandžak List.[11]

GROM

The Citizen Option for Macedonia (GROM)-led alliance consisted of the Citizen Option for Macedonia, the Liberal Party, the Serbian Progressive Party in Macedonia, the Union of Tito's Left Forces, and the Party of Free Democrats.[11]

Campaign

SDSM's Zoran Zaev said that the election was about "choosing whether [Macedonians] will support the fight for freedom and the right to a better life, or continue with state robbery."[12] Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said: "We need a majority so nobody can blackmail us and we can keep up with the programme...that would lead Macedonia into the EU and NATO."[3]

Opinion polls

President

Poll source	Date	Sample size	Ivanov VMRO-DPMNE	Pendarovski SDSM	Halimi DPA	Popovski GROM	None	Undecided
Center for Information and Research (CIG)[13]	March 2014	2,400	29.3%	19.4%	6.1%	-	8.7%	35%
Center for Research and Analysis[14]	March 2014	1,839	42.2%	19.7%	5.2%	5.4%	9.1%	18.4%
Election Results	13 April 2014	869,137	51.7%	37.5%	2.2%	1.8%

Parliament

Poll source	Date	Sample size	VMRO-DPMNE	SDSM	DUI	DPA	NDR	GROM
Dimitrija Čupovski[15]	January 2014	1,530	59	36	15	7	1	2
Dimitrija Čupovski[16]	April 2014	1,500	63	31	15	10	1	–

Conduct

The second round of the election had accreditations given to 9,952 domestic and 550 foreign observers, as well as 283 translators, according to the State Election Commission.[17]

The United States and European Union publicly urged political leaders to ensure the election was "credible and transparent," amidst complains by the SDSM.[12]

Results

President

In second round voting, centres were open from 5:00 GMT to 17:00 GMT. Turnout was reported as 9.58% in the first three hours.[12] Gjorge Ivanov was re-elected with 57% of the valid vote.[18] Following the election, Stevo Pendarovski called for an investigation of the election by external observers.[19]

Candidate	Party	First round		Second round
		Votes	%	Votes	%
Gjorge Ivanov	VMRO-DPMNE	449,442	53.13	534,910	57.33
Stevo Pendarovski	Social Democratic Union	326,164	38.56	398,077	42.67
Ilijaz Halimi	Democratic Party of Albanians	38,966	4.61
Zoran T. Popovski	Citizen Option for Macedonia	31,368	3.71
Invalid/blank votes		23,677	–	34,707	–
Total		869,547	100	967,676	100
Registered voters/turnout		1,779,572	48.86	1,779,572	54.36
Source: SEC

Parliament

The incumbent government, led by VMRO-DPMNE, won 42.98% of the votes to claim victory ahead of SDSM with 25.34% and DUI with 13.71%. The 123 seats in the Assembly were won by six political parties and coalitions with VMRO-DPMNE winning 61 seats, SDSM winning 34 seats, DUI winning 19 seats, DPA winning 7 seats and GROM and NDP winning 1 seat each.[20]

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
VMRO-DPMNE coalition	481,615	44.47	61	+5
Social Democratic Union coalition	283,955	26.22	34	−8
Democratic Union for Integration	153,646	14.19	19	+4
Democratic Party of Albanians	66,393	6.13	7	−1
Citizen Option for Macedonia coalition	31,610	2.92	1	New
National Democratic Revival	17,783	1.64	1	−1
VMRO–People's Party	16,772	1.55	0	0
Coalition for a Positive Macedonia	10,566	0.98	0	New
Dignity	9,265	0.86	0	New
Social Democratic Party	4,700	0.43	0	0
Party for a European Future	3,194	0.29	0	New
Popular Movement for Macedonia	1,925	0.18	0	New
Party for Economic Change 21	1,281	0.12	0	New
Party for Democratic Prosperity	385	0.04	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	37,654	–	–	–
Total	1,120,744	100	123	0
Registered voters/turnout	1,780,128	62.96	–	–
Source: SEC

Reactions

After voting ended the SDSM's Zoran Zaev said that "SDSM and our opposition coalition will not recognise the election process, neither the presidential nor the parliamentary." He accused the government of "abusing the entire state system."[21] It followed reports that Gruevski had warned that the SDSM was preparing, as an alibi, to react in such a manner to the election because they were due to lose the election.[22]

Notes

• ^a The term "general elections" is used to refer to the presidential and parliamentary elections that were, incidentally, held on the same date since the Republic of Macedonia has a parliamentary system in which both elections are held separately.

References

1. "Macedonia presidential election set for second vote". Agence France-Presse. Yahoo News Australia. 14 April 2014. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
2. Kole Casule (6 March 2014). "Macedonia calls early parliamentary election for April 27". Reuters. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
3. "Macedonia wraps up voting in early parliamentary vote | News | DW.DE | 27.04.2014". DW.DE. 13 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
4. "Масовна поддршка за Иванов: Собрани 63.253 потписи за неколку часа" (in Macedonian). Kurir.mk. 4 March 2014. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
5. "СДСМ: Зад кандидатурата на Пендаровски стојат потписите на сите пратеници на СДСМ и коалиционите партнери". a1on.mk. 6 March 2014. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
6. "Илијаз Халими е кандидат на ДПА за претседател на Македонија". Sitel. 26 February 2014. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
7. "Зоран Поповски веќе собра 10.000 потписи" (in Macedonian). Dnevnik. 17 February 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
8. Konstantin Testorides (13 April 2014). "Ethnic Albanians boycott Macedonia vote". Yahoo News. Associated Press. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
9. "Here is how Pendarovski January slanders his spine: In Prishtina praises Kosovo and criticizes Macedonia | Macedonian News Agency". Kurir.mk. 25 April 2014. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
10. "Четиринаесет партии доставија листи на кандидати за пратеници". Utrinski.mk. 30 March 2014. Archived from the original on 28 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
11. The Republic of Macedonia's 2014 Parliamentary Elections Handbook Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
12. "PM tipped for third term as Macedonia votes - Europe". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
13. Pajaziti, Naser (19 March 2014). "Polls and surveys that favor presidential nominees". Independent Balkan News Agency.
14. "Poll: Highest trust ratings for President Ivanov and VMRO-DPMNE". Republika Online. 23 March 2014. Archived from the original on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
15. Анкета: ВМРО-ДПМНЕ со најголем број пратеници доколку утре има парламентарни избори Archived 28 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Kurir, 1 February 2014.
16. Анкета: ВМРО-ДПМНЕ со 63 пратеници, СДСМ со 31 Archived 28 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Sitel, 22 April 2014.
17. "9952 domestic and 550 foreign observers will follow elections | Macedonian News Agency". Kurir.mk. 25 April 2014. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
18. "ДИК: Иванов 534.154 гласови, Пендаровски 398.008 | 24 ВЕСТИ". 24vesti.mk. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
19. "4471". Utrinski.mk. Archived from the original on 30 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
20. "4471". Utrinski.mk. Archived from the original on 30 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
21. Casule, Kole. "Macedonian opposition cries election foul, will not accept results | Reuters". Uk.reuters.com. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
22. "Scandalous: Zaev with fir scenario for failure of elections | Macedonian News Agency". Kurir.mk. 25 April 2014. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.