Resuming her campaign after a successful first round of the elections, opposition candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova said that the results were a political earthquake. Siljanovska was tied with ruling coalition candidate Stevo Pendarovski, even after Pendarovski’s SDSM party joined forces with its Albanian coalition partner DUI and dozens of other smaller parties, and enjoyed the advantage given by its total control of the executive and the judiciary.

Look at the results in the capital. Look at the main urban centers. There you will see the political earthquake which happened. We haven’t seen such collapse in legitimacy in the history of European elections. In 18 months they lost 40 percent of their voters – 200.000 votes in total. That is a powerful warning not just for the presidential elections, but for the next general elections as well, said Siljanovska, reminding the Government that it was predicting Pendarovski would win by 150.000 votes.

The VMRO-DPMNE candidate condemned the statement from Kosovan Foreign Minister Bexhet Pacoli, who called ethnic Albanians in Macedonia to vote for Pendarovski.

I have nothing against good neighborly relations with Kosovo, but this statement is unusual. One of the basic principles of the United Nations is non-interference in internal affairs, and the electoral process is an internal affair of any country. I’m convinced that ethnic Albanian citizens will know who to trust with their votes, Siljanovska said.