With the polling stations closed in the dual presidential and general election, State Electoral Commission President Aleksandar Dastevski announced the turnout numbers.
In the presidential vote, where turnout is important for its validity, Dastevski said that by 18:30h 46.34 percent of all eligible voters voted. This is above the margin of 40 percent, that needs to be surpassed in order for the election to be valid.
During the day came clear reports that the DUI party is trying to boycott the presidential election, make it invalid and then press its request that future presidents are selected in Parliament with the Albanian parties holding veto power. DUI official Artan Grubi shared the video of his own vote, during which he only asked for one ballot – for the general elections. Reports of this similar practice from majority Albanian areas were coming during the day, but it looks like the boycott was limited only to some DUI supporters, and that the opposition Albanian bloc VLEN did not engage in this. By 17h, it was clear that the boycott will fail. Outgoing President Stevo Pendarovski, in his statement that was embargoed due to the media silence laws in effect until the polling stations closed, lamented this attempt by DUI saying that it took away from his support.
In the general elections, Dastevski informed that the turnout reached 53.15 percent until 18:30h, with half an hour of voting to go. This is slightly higher than during the previous election in 2020.
By municipalities, the rural area of Krivogastani had the highest turnout, of over 82 percent, while Centar Zupa had just 18.6 percent turnout. As usual, turnout was significantly lower in ethnic Albanian areas, even in the general elections that were not being boycotted, indicating the high emigration rate and the inflated voter rolls.
The capital Skopje, which swung strongly in favor of the VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova in the first round of the presidential elections held two weeks ago, again had a strong turnout. In the large municipalities of Aerodrom, Kisela Voda and Gjorce Petrov it surpassed 60 percent, as was the case in Centar and Kisela Voda, who are more balanced in their political loyalties, and actually usually swing left, but went for Siljanovska in the first round.
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