While the official results of the first round of the presidential elections are expected around midnight, the two main political parties VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM will, as usual, provide timely projections during the evening.

Not surprisingly, given their position as favorites in the polls, VMRO-DPMNE are the first to share their earliest projection. With 10 percent of the votes counted, VMRO candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova is seen well ahead of SDSM candidate Stevo Pendarovski with 23,644 votes against 9,740. Pendarovski is dangerously close to the third placed candidate – Bujar Osmani from DUI – with 7,473 votes. Arben Taravari from the Albanian opposition coalition VLEN had 5,010 votes from the initially processed 10 percent of the total votes.

Maksim Dimitrievski ranked fifth with 3,687 votes and Biljana Vankovska has 2,026 votes. Stevco Jakimovski won 366 votes and 1,111 ballots were invalid.