The initial results published this morning on the website of the State Election Commission indicate that, with almost 100 percent of the ballots processed, the VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gordana Siljanovska Davkova secured the most votes in yesterday’s presidential elections, totaling 362,682 (40.08%), ahead of Stevo Pendarovski from SDSM, who received 180,306 votes (19.93%).

Compared to the first round of the 2019 presidential elections, where, alongside Siljanovska Davkova and Pendarovski, Blerim Reka also ran as a candidate of the Alliance for Albanians and the Besa Movement, the current president’s votes have significantly decreased. In the 2014 elections, Pendarovski won 326,164 votes and proceeded to the second round against Gjorge Ivanov, who eventually won. Siljanovska Davkova and Pendarovski will now face each other again in the second round of the presidential elections, scheduled for May 8, alongside the parliamentary elections.

In these elections, SDSM as a party received less than 200 thousand votes for the first time.

Historically, SDSM recorded its lowest result in the first round of the presidential elections in 2009, when the then-candidate of the Social Democrats, Ljubomir Frchkoski, garnered 202,691 votes. In parliamentary elections, SDSM achieved its lowest result in 2006, with 218,463 votes.