VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova easily collected double the 10,000 signatures needed for a presidential run.

VMRO leader Hristijan Mickoski, who signed on to Siljanovska’s list today, said that in just three hours, 15,000 citizens from across the country signed the nomination, and that by early afternoon, the number reached 22,000. Mickoski also said that the SDSM candidate Stevo Pendarovski, who also began to collect signatures today, trails Siljanovska by a 2:1 margin. This is a way for the parties to show enthusiasm before the election and the process serves as an unofficial poll before the elections on April 24th and May 8th, when the general elections also take place. The winner of the first round of the presidential elections will likely enjoy a good boost in the second round, which may strongly affect the general elections.

I’m grateful to the Macedonian citizens who came out to support the nomination of professor Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova. I also thank others who support the other candidates so far. That enriches our democratic process. We hear threats from political parties for boycott of the second round of the presidential elections if their demands are not met, which has nothing to do with democracy or the path that Macedonia must go down, Mickoski said.

The DUI party, which fears losing its position of absolute power after two decades, opened the idea of calling on Albanians to boycott the second round, when the two Albanian candidates are expected to drop out, and wants to block the election of the next President by having the turnout fall under 40 percent. DUI wants the President to be elected in Parliament, where the Albanian parties would presumably have veto power over the election.