Reactions on streets of Skopje as North Macedonia elects first woman president

(9 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Skopje, North Macedonia - 9 May 2024
1. Wide of Skopje main square
2. Reflection of North Macedonia flag in water puddle
3. Various of newspaper stand
4. Newspaper headline reading (Macedonian), ”Macedonia Gordana Siljanovska and Mickovski took convincing victory”
5. Newspaper headline reading (Macedonian) "Elections are the most important right”
6. Mid of newspapers
7. SOUNDBITE (Macedonian) Djose Stanevski, vox pop:
“I don’t expect nothing, nothing at all. Why, because they will send us back, instead of going forward toward the European Union, we will head back.”
8. Mid of street
9. SOUNDBITE (Macedonian) Danica Stojanovska, vox pop:
“We will see if they will hold to their promises.”
10. Wide of Skopje street
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Simonida Kacarska, political analyst:
"In terms of the European integration, the main thing, the constitutional changes, that remains to be seen how and whether VMRO will agree to adopt them. There is a consensus from what we hear from the Albanian parties, overall, that they will not go into a coalition with some of them, will not vote for them. So we might expect here to see some shifts."
12. Cutaway
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Simonida Kacarska, political analyst:
"They (VMRO wining party) will have, practically, much higher power in all of the spheres of society. And we'll see, there's concerns going back to how they ruled at the end of 2016, there are concerns how this will materialize, but I think all of us hope that some valuable lessons from that period have been learned."
14. Pan from North Macedonian parliament to Gordana Siljanovska Davkova poster
15. Mid of poster
STORYLINE:
Early results showed an overwhelming lead for the conservative challenger who would be North Macedonia's first woman president as the center-left government faced major losses in Wednesday's twin presidential and parliamentary elections.
With more than half the vote counted, 70-year-old law professor Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova led the presidential run-off with 63.8% of the vote, while incumbent Stevo Pendarovski had just 29.7%.
Siljanovska-Davkova was backed by the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, which made gains on popular discontent over the country’s slow path toward European Union membership and its sluggish economy.
The coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE was ahead with nearly 40% in the parliamentary election, while the Social Democrat-led coalition that has held power for the least seven years were pushed to third place with 13.4%.
A group of parties led by the ethnic Albanian minority party DUI was second with nearly 17%, according the country's election commission.
Victory for Siljanovska-Davkova would make her the first woman to hold the largely ceremonial post since the country gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
More than 2,300 domestic and international observers were authorized to monitor the election.
AP video shot by Florent Bajrami
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[@gocestojanovski3723]

Abanians Albanians, Serbs, but, Why don't you ask Macedonians.

[@gocestojanovski3723]

Razumemo, no nie sne Makedonci. You from North got no chance to make decisions on Macedonian behalf. Republika Makedonija