North Macedonia’s conservative opposition VMRO-DPMNE coalition has declared a resounding victory in both presidential and parliamentary elections. Preliminary results show the coalition securing 42.88% of the votes, with over 356,000 ballots counted so far.
Presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova won decisively with 64.80% of the vote.
The Social Democrats, in power for seven years, garnered only 14.82%. Meanwhile, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), led by Ali Ahmeti, took 14.30%, followed by the ethnic Albanian party VLEN with 11.21%.
The anti-Western Left party managed 6.87%, while the ZNAM party of ex-Social Democrat Maksim Dimitrievski obtained 5.26%. Other parties and lists received less than 1% each.
The elections were held on Wednesday, with roughly 1.8 million registered voters expected to choose 120 members for the four-year parliamentary term and select the next president. The unicameral parliament also reserves three seats for expatriates.
VMRO-DPMNE’s triumph signifies a shift in political power after nearly a decade of Social Democrat rule.
