The general election has started today in North Macedonia. When the polling stations opened in the Balkan country, long lines of mask-wearing voters were already forming. Polling stations should remain open until 9 p.m. – two hours longer than usual. Around 1.8 million citizens were called to vote. It is the first general election in the country since the former Macedonia has changed its name to North Macedonia, results are not expected until Thursday morning.
The previous Social Democratic head of government Zoran Zaev is trying to be re-elected, but the national conservative party VMRO-DPMNE of his challenger Hristijan Mickoski is on par in polls. The main party of the Albanian minority also claimed its right to be head of government.
Election postponed due to pandemic
Zaev had resigned in October, but the election was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now they are being held in the midst of a new wave of infection with the new virus, for which the political trenches have deepened.
Apart from coping with the pandemic, talks about North Macedonia’s accession to the EU are also a key issue. The renaming of the country was a prerequisite for this since there had been a dispute with the EU country Greece over the name of Macedonia for years.
