VMRO-DPMNE Presidential nominee Gordana Siljanovska expressed her gratituted to the thousands of citizens who gave their signatures on Saturday, helping her collect the necessary 10.000 signatures in a matter of hours. Siljanovska already won the VMRO support, but decided to also use the constitutional option and appeal to the citizens directly, and she called on them to share their support on the social media.

The day was crowned by the enthusiasm of the citizens, who turned out in huge numbers to support my presidential nomination, Siljanovska said, adding that the campaign chose an option used in modern presidential campaigns such as those of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. “This unstoppable river of citizens shows us that we are determined to affect change”.

Siljanovska also drew a line of distinction between such individual shows of support and the practice of political parties in Macedonia to pressure voters to take photographs of their ballots, as proof that they voted “correctly”. Since her nomination, Siljanovska faced a torrent of criticism from the SDSM party and its supporters in the media, who have attacked her on the basis of her age and gender, and also criticized her appeal to the citizens to give her their support.