The certification given to Stevo Pendarovski by the State Electoral Commission that he was elected as President bore the name “Republic of North Macedonia”, but was also bilingual, under the controversial law for the use of the Albanian language.

Pendarovski, who owes his win to ethnic Albanian voters, promised that he will sign the act into law once he assumes office, and some central institutions are already using it after it was signed by Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi and published in the Official gazette. President Gjorge Ivanov refused to sign it into law, or the constitutional amendments that rename Macedonia into North Macedonia. A dozen laws also remain unsigned, because they were submitted to Ivanov under the name “North Macedonia”.

Implementation of the clearly unconstitutional law about the Albanian language so far has largely depended on who runs the particular institution. The Customs Office, for example, introduced a new trilingual logo which mixes Macedonian, Albanian and English and its deputy director Irfan Buci, who is Albanian, boasted about the change to the Albanian language media.