The weekly IPIS poll, presented by the Macedonian Television, shows VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska Davkova with a comfortable lead over the incumbent Stevo Pendarovski. In the 3rd and the 4th electoral districts, in the east of the country, Siljanovska leads Pendarovski nearly double. This area is predominantly ethnic Macedonian, and Pendarovski is only competitive in the areas with larger ethnic Albanian population.

The poll generally corresponds to the polls for the parties in the general elections, where VMRO-DPMNE hopes to build up a solid lead over SDSM in the 3rd and 4th district, in its push to secure over 50 seats in Parliament, and an outright majority of 61 if possible.

The 3rd district, covering Veles, Stip and swathes of eastern Macedonia, breaks for Siljanovska with 36 percent against 20.9 percent for Pendarovski. Siljanovska’s rating grew since the last poll, in February, where she got 27.3 percent of the vote, while Pendarovski was then supported by 15.4 percent of the voters. Of the other presidential candidates, Maksim Dimitrievski from the ZNAM movement is supported by 6.6 percent of the voters, while Levica’s Biljana Vankovska has 4.8 percent – which is disappointing, given that Levica was counting on support from Veles, the hometown of its leader Dimitar Apasiev. 10 percent would rather not say who they support – a share of the voters that is declining as the candidates were officially nominated, and 7.5 percent would not say who they support. 12.1 percent responded that they don’t support any of the candidates.

In the 4th electoral district, covering Prilep, Strumica, Kavadarci and the rural south-east of Macedonia, Siljanovska beats Pendarovski with 35.8 percent against 22.4 percent. The previous month, Siljanovska polled at 27.2 percent, and Pendarovski at 15.8 percent. Dimitrievski is supported by 5.2 percent of the voters and Vankovska by 2.4 percent. Karpos Mayor Stevco Jakimovski polls at around 1 percent in both the 3rd and 4th district, as to the candidates of the ethnic Albanian parties DUI and VLEN. The share of voters who refused to respond in the 4th district is 12.6 percent, 12.5 percent support neither of the candidates and 6.2 percent did not answer.