Macedonia’s Parliament Speaker, Talat Xhaferi, is set Friday to schedule the presidential elections. The first round should be held on April 21 and the second round on 5 May.

According to the Electoral Code, no more than 90 days and no less than 70 days should pass from the scheduling of the elections until election day. The term of incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov ends on May 12.

Political parties so far have not presented their candidates for the upcoming presidential election. The two largest parties SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE decided to choose their candidates through a public call.

SDSM has not yet informed whether nominations have been received. Secretary General Aleksandar Kiracovski confirmed today that the process is ongoing and that the official election of the candidate will take place on March 3 at the party congress.

VMRO-DPMNE, though, has received 10 nominations, one after the expiration of the deadline, after which the party released the names of the candidates. The party is expected to choose its favorite candidate at the convention scheduled for February 16th.

DUI, although they say that they have an official position that they might go with their own candidate, they still leave a chance to reach another decision before the expiration of the deadline for submitting a nomination. DUI, says MP Xhevat Ademi, has a lot of candidates and qualities and options.

Regarding a possible holding of early parliamentary elections along with the presidential candidates, as required by the opposition, Kiracovski said that very soon the party’s decision on this issue will be adopted and announced.