Nikola Gruevski remains Prime Minister and Gjorgje Ivanov remains President of the Republic of Macedonia, stated Vlatko Gjorcev from VMRO-DPMNE, declaring double victory in all constituencies in the country. According to Gjorcev, citizens chose between the two concepts and chose stability and development of the country. Gjorcev declared victory for the three MP mandates from the diaspora and extended gratitude to all citizens from the diaspora for voting in the elections. The municipalities where VMRO-DPMNE registers a convincing lead include Kisela Voda, Karpos, Gazi Baba, Gjorce Petrov, Butel, Kumanovo and Suto Orizari where the result is 9:1 for VMRO-DPMNE. In nearly all bigger cities, according to Gjorcev, VMRO-DPMNE’s lead is drastic in: Kavadarci, Bitola, Prilep, Ohrid, Kicevo and Struga.

Bujar Osmani, BDI Spokesman, stressed that governing BDI also declared a historic victory.

Earlier at a press-conference, SDSM leader Zoran Zaev stressed that the united opposition does not recognize the election process and it will demand a technical government to be formed which will conduct fair presidential and parliamentary elections.

Antonio Milososki, head of VMRO-DPMNE’s candidate list in the fifth constituency, at the first press-conference following the voting, evaluated today’s elections as the most democratic elections held thus far. According to Milososki, citizens are the ones who won these elections as they demonstrated high democratic awareness and maturity.

SDSM does not recognize the election results, stated SDSM President Zoran Zaev at a press-conference held immediately after the closing of the polling stations. Zaev demanded a technical government to be formed which will organize new presidential and parliamentary elections.

According to the State Election Commission, by 13.00 hrs, the right to vote in the presidential elections was realized by 27.05 percent of voters while 30.93 percent of voters voted in the early parliamentary elections. The municipality with the highest turnout includes Novaci - 53.42 percent of votes were cast for the presidential elections and 54 percent of votes for the parliamentary elections. The lowest turnout for the presidential elections is registered in the Municipality of Zelino where 5.37 percent of voters cast their votes. According to data, the highest turnout for the early parliamentary elections was registered in the third constituency – 37.01 percent, followed by the fourth election unit with 34.86 percent, 37.12 percent of eligible voters voted in the first constituency, 30.37 percent voted in the fifth constituency, 29.08 percent in the second constituency whereas 22.92 percent voted in the sixth constituency. State Election Commission Vice President Subhi Jakupi urged all citizens to practice their right to vote by the time the polling stations close. According to the voters list, 1,780,128 citizens have the right to vote at today’s early parliamentary elections and 1,779,572 citizens have the right to vote in the presidential elections.

The campaign for the presidential and early parliamentary elections ends at the end of the day Friday. However, the issues that have been raised over the past thirty days, the manner in which the battle was fought in both the Macedonian and Albanian political campus and the messages that set the tone of the entire campaign from its very beginning will be discussed for long after polling stations close on Sunday.

As early as at the promotion of presidential candidate Gjorge Ivanov, VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski said that in these elections he was not seeking “just” a double victory but 62 parliamentary seats that would give him comfort in the making of the new government. This objective in fact defined the contours of VMRO-DPMNE’s strategy for the election campaign, which set out to fight battles on two fronts – on the one hand against SDSM as the largest opposition party on the other hand against BDI, which, in Gruevski’s words, operates with threats and is obstructing reforms in the country. In result, a great deal of the election campaign of the governing party focused on interethnic issues but with rhetoric that did not help ease interethnic tension.

- Archbishop Stefan sent a message on the occasion of great Christian holiday Easter and reminded citizens to respect each other and rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus.

- The State Election Commission released the initial final unofficial results which have been 100 percent processed and according to them, VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate Gjorge Ivanov in the first round of the presidential elections won 449,068 votes (51.67 percent). SDSM candidate Stevo Pendarovski – 326,133 votes (37.52 percent). PDSH candidate Ilijaz Halimi won 38,966 votes (4.48 percent) whereas Zoran Popovski from party GROM won 31,366 votes (3.61 percent).  The data is obtained from all 3,512 polling stations.

The presidential elections on 13 April were efficiently conducted and the election campaign was active. The process of registration of candidates was inclusive and the candidates had the opportunity to freely carry out their election campaigns, said OSCE/ODIHR Head of Mission Geert-Hinrich Ahrens at the press conference Monday.

He also said that despite the fact that the fundamental freedoms were honored, the biased media coverage and the failure to separate state and party activities did not provide for an equal contest among candidates.

Ambassador Ahrens praised the election administration and the State Election Commission for successfully completing their job and said the ODIHR final appraisal of the presidential election would be presented following the second round on 27 April.

According to the State Election Commission, based on data processed from 97.72 percent of the polling stations, VMRO-DPMNE’s presidential candidate Gjorge Ivanov polled 448,303 votes, or 51.65 percent, SDSM’s presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski polled 326,069 votes, or 37.57 percent, PDSH’s presidential candidate Iljaz Halimi polled 38,965 votes, or 4.49 percent, and GROM’s presidential candidate Zoran Popovski won 31,360 votes, or 3.61 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on 13 April. The invalid ballots total 23,651.

According to the State Election Commission, based on data processed from 85.34 percent of the polling stations, VMRO-DPMNE’s presidential candidate Gjorge Ivanov polled 360,546 votes, or 51.96 percent, SDSM’s presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski polled 255,469 votes, or 36.82 percent, PDSH’s presidential candidate Iljaz Halimi polled 34,728 votes, or 5.00 percent, and GROM’s presidential candidate Zoran Popovski won 24,601 votes, or 3.55 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on 13 April. The invalid ballots total 18,568.

State Election Commission: http://rezultati.sec.mk/President/Results?cultureSign=en-US&roundID=1&roundDetailsID=r&municipalityID=All&pollingStationID=All

We had peaceful and fair democratic elections, one of the most democratic polls in the Republic of Macedonia ever, said Ilija Dimovski, director of VMRO-DPMNE’s Communications Centre, after polling stations were closed.

According to Oliver Spasovski, chief of SDSM’s election committee and of the election committee of SDSM’s presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski, the turnout in the first election round of the presidential poll, was around 50 percent yet the voting process was riddled with irregularities.

Subhi Jakupi, the Vice President of the State Election Commission, said the presidential elections were fair and democratic and in keeping with the election law. He also informed that the first results about the outcome of the elections were expected at about 22.00.

The State Election Commission informed that based on data received and processed from 92.48 percent of a total of 3,480 polling stations, 41.23 percent, or 693,091, of all eligible voters in the Republic of Macedonia went to the polls by 17.40 hrs. In comparison, by 17.00 hrs in the presidential elections in 2009, the turnout was 48.73 percent.

The highest turnout by 17.00 was registered in Novaci (69.23 percent), Negotino (64.05 percent), Lozovo (62.08 percent), Gevgelija (60.18), Prilep (58.82 percent), Stip (58.20 percent), Kavadarci (57.69 percent), Aerodrom (54.32 percent) and Bitola (54.21 percent), while the lowest turnout was registered in Plasnica (10.45 percent), Saraj (9.15 percent), Bogovinje (8.29 percent), Lipkovo (8.09 percent) and Zelino (7.60 percent).

According to the Interior Ministry, which secures the election process with 7,000 police officers, there were no major disruptions that affected the election process. In a statement made one hour before the closing of polling stations, Interior Ministry Spokesperson Kotevski said that since Macedonia’s independence, the Interior Ministry received the fewest reports of voting process violations.

According to the State Election Commission, the turnout in the first round of the presidential election by 13.00 hrs was 25.02 percent based on data received from 3,343 from a total of 3,512 polling stations.

The municipalities with the highest turnout include Novaci (50.03 percent), Kratovo (45.86 percent), Pehcevo (44.05 percent) and Prilep (41.63 percent), while the municipalities with the lowest turnout are Lipkovo (3.76 percent), Aracinovo (4.48 percent), Bogovinje (4.56 percent) and Zelino (4.78 percent) amongst others.

The eligible voters in this presidential election total 1,779,572.

The diaspora will be participating in presidential elections for the first time. A total of 8,332 Macedonian citizens living abroad registered for vote at 34 polling stations at Macedonian diplomatic missions and consular posts in the three electoral units - Europe, America and Australia.

So the head of state can be elected in the first vote of the presidential elections, one of the candidates needs to poll 50 percent of the vote plus one of those that cast ballots. If no candidate meets this condition, the two best ranked candidates of the first round will be running in a second round two weeks later. The five-year term will be entrusted to the candidate having polled more votes provided the turnout is at least 40 percent.

- The State Election Commission undertook the voting material for the upcoming presidential elections and began distributing it to the election committees. It is expected for 1,779,572 citizens to vote on Sunday.

- Candice Miller, President of the Group for Friendship with Macedonia in the US Congress submitted a resolution with which it she urged the White House and the State Department to secure Macedonia’s NATO accession at the NATO Summit in September. In the resolution supported by 12 other congressmen, dedication to the NATO reforms in Macedonia is paid, participation in the peacekeeping mission in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the economic reforms implemented in Macedonia. Meanwhile, former NATO Secretary General George Robertson stated that Macedonia is ready for NATO membership and it should get the long-awaited invitation.

Governing VMRO-DPMNE launched its campaign for the early parliamentary elections set for 27 April with a rally in the center of Skopje on Saturday promoting a program that contains 2,046 new projects and many promises concerning the economic wellbeing, creating new jobs, writing off outstanding liabilities of the impoverished, organizing travel weekends for pensioners and providing benefits for the young.

The program entitled “Confirmed” will be the most important argument of the coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski who stressed before the citizens gathered from all over Macedonia that the promises that the ruling party made in the past and kept were a guarantee that they would keep the promises they were now making.

- Following the meeting with his Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos and after taking part in the European informal ministerial meeting Gymnich in Athens, Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki accused Greece of breaching international law and urged the Greek authorities to honor the Judgment of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Prime Minister and VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski is the most trusted politician in Macedonia, according to the latest opinion poll conducted by the Dimitrija Cuposki Institute between 28 and 31 March on a sample of 1,510 interviewees in all six electoral units. The poll took into consideration other relevant demographic characteristics of the population, such as gender, age and ethnicity.

The opinion poll results revealed that 27.9 percent of the citizens trust Nikola Gruevski, 6.9 percent trust SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, 7.1 percent trust BDI leader Ali Ahmeti 4.3 percent trust PDSH leader Menduh Thaci, 1.7 percent trust GROM leader Stevco Jakimovski, 1.4 percent trust former SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski, 1.2percent trust RDK leader Rufi Osmani and 0.9 percent trust SDSM vice president Radmila Sekerinska.

- Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki on Wednesday before the ministers of NATO member-states in Brussels stressed that Macedonia expects Greece to respect the international law and the judgment of The Hague. According to Poposki, this is the most important argument which should be taken into consideration in the future discussions for building a NATO partnership.

The Polish American Congress (PAC) sent a letter to US President Barack Obama urging him to extend unconditional support for Macedonia’s full-fledged membership of the Alliance at the NATO summit in Great Britain in September. The United Macedonian Diaspora informs that the PAC, as the mouthpiece of more than 12 million Americans of Polish descent, raises concern in its letter about the enlargement standoff and argues that enlargement has to be the priority of the NATO summit this year.

“PAC strongly believes that NATO enlargement in Central and Eastern Europe is going to strengthen regional security. As for the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and Crimea, especially after Russia’s encroachment in the region, we feel that it is necessary for NATO to open its door to our allies, such as Macedonia, this year,” reads the letter to President Obama from PAC President Frank J. Spula.

ANP 204

http://www.mfa.gov.mk/sites/default/files/dokumenti/ANP%20NATO%202013-2014%20final-WEB%20MNR%20v2.pdf

- Fourteen parties submitted lists of the candidates for member of parliament to the State Election Commission (SEC) for the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for 27 April and SEC has 48 hours to define whether the lists are in accordance with the regulation of the Electoral Code. 

The new round of name issue talks held in New York on Wednesday ended without any progress yet with an announcement that talks would intensify after elections. Mediator Nimetz informed that both parties said they wanted talks to speed up wherefore the following round of negotiations would be held after the elections in either New York or the region.

“There are no tangible results yet this was a very alive and honest exchange of opinions,” Mr. Nimetz said after the meeting.

The positions of Macedonia and Greece to the name dispute and the proposals that have already been put forward were discussed in detail at Mr. Nimetz’s joint meeting with negotiators Zoran Jolevski and Adamantios Vassilakis.

“We talked about the ways in which we could propel the process forward. Both parties expressed a wish that talks should intensify,” Mr. Nimetz said.  

He also added that although a solution was evidently not yet in sight, both parties were ready to continue negotiations more intensely.

- The State Election Commission (SEC) closed the voters’ list and 1,779,572 citizens will have the right to vote in the upcoming elections. According to SEC, 70,305 citizens are working abroad and 8,332 of them got registered to vote.

The campaign of Gjorge Ivanov, the presidential candidate of governing VMRO-DPMNE began with a massively attended rally in Ohrid’s central square on Monday evening and continued with rallies in Struga and Resen, as well as with meetings with citizens in the villages of Vevcani, Labunista and Oktisi on Tuesday.

Ivanov stressed at the rally in Ohrid in front of dozens of thousands of people that Macedonia had to continue walking the path of European integration.

“Macedonia is an EU and NATO candidate member state and is ready for economic cooperation with the new fast-growing economic in the world. As a president, I will continue the effort of integrating Macedonia into the EU and NATO. Our readiness has been confirmed by the five positive reports from the European Commission and the five recommendations for opening membership negotiations with the Union. We want what we have deserved, nothing more and nothing less,” Ivanov said.

- The 20 day campaign for the presidential elections kicks off Monday and it will end on 13 April. VMRO-DPMNE will launch the campaign in Ohrid and presidential candidate Gjorge Ivanov presented his platform in Skopje, Sunday. SDSM will also promote its presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski at a convention in Skopje on Monday while a central rally in the Municipality of Karpos will be held by party GROM for its candidate Zoran Popovski. PDSH on Monday, in the Municipality of Cair, will launch the campaign for Ilijaz Halimi.

-    The High-Level Accession Dialogue between the Republic of Macedonia and the European Commission is going to continue immediately after the elections, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule told Fatmir Besimi, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, and Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki at their meeting in Brussels on Thursday. Good neighborly relations, the rule of law and fundamental rights are expected to be the main subjects of the next HLAD round.

Many proposals have been put forward as to how the best voters’ list could be compiled that nobody would dispute and consequently nobody would question the outcome of elections. One of them was for the State Election Commission to be directly responsible for the compilation of the voters’ lists instead of receiving a list from the State Statistical Office developed based on statistics from the Interior Ministry. Another proposal recently tabled was that all voters should register themselves for voting. However, despite all reforms, suggestions and efforts, the voters’ lists will most probably be one of the most burning issues in these elections too, considering political parties have again disputed its accuracy.

- Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki and Deputy PM Fatmir Besimi on Thursday are to pay a working visit to Brussels on Thursday to meet with European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule. According to announcements, the high-level accession dialogue will be discussed as well as the European integration process.

The Democratic Union of Integration (BDI) has filed a complaint to the State Election Commission (DIK) concerning the Macedonian citizens registered for vote at the Macedonian Embassy in Tirana, Albania. According to the voters’ list, BDI say, most of these 453 voters live on the same street address.

BDI demand that the addresses be checked and that the voters’ list be corrected in adherence with the election legislation. These people are said to have been reported as residents of the municipalities of Centar, Resen and Kicevo with collective addresses at each of which as many as about 40 people were registered.