Deadline for submitting presidential nominations expires Thursday at midnight

Alliance for Albanians/Besa candidate Blerim Reka submitted his presidential nomination on Tuesday. SDSM’s Stevo Pendarovski and VMRO-DPMNE’s Gordana Siljanovska Davkova are expected to submit theirs by the appropriate deadline.

The SEC is required to confirm the presidential nominations within 48 hours of submission. If any irregularities are identified, nominations are returned for corrections to be made within 48 hours.

The presidential campaign begins on April 1 and ends on April 19, followed by election silence. The first election round is scheduled for April 21, while the runoff for May 5. The SEC will determine by lot each candidate’s official number on the ballot on March 25th.

A runoff will be held if no candidate receives the required majority of votes. In this case, voters will choose between the two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the first round. The runoff campaign ends on May 3 at midnight, while voting takes place on May 5. The candidate who gets more votes in the runoff wins the elections, but only if voter turnout exceeds 40 percent. If no candidate receives the required majority of votes in the runoff voting, the entire election procedure is repeated.