Macedonians vote in election dominated by splits over name change
By Trend
Macedonians vote on Sunday in a presidential election dominated by deep divisions over a change of the country’s name to North Macedonia under a deal with Greece, Trendreported citing Reuters.
The change, which Greece demanded to end what it called an implied territorial claim on its northern province also called Macedonia, resolves a decades-old dispute and opens the door to Macedonian membership of NATO and the European Union.
But the accord continues to divide Macedonians and has eclipsed all other issues during campaigning for Sunday’s election, in which about 1.8 million voters will choose between three candidates.
“We have to put an end to this. We need to stop the sale of our national interest,” said Ilija Velkovski, a 67-year old pensioner, after casting his vote. “Yes, we want EU and NATO, but not like this.”
However, the presidency has no authority to block constitutional amendments that were passed earlier this year by a two-thirds majority of parliament to enable the name change.
Reflecting differences over the deal pushed through by the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, the winner of Sunday’s ballot is not expected to secure an outright majority, meaning a run-off vote would be held on May 5.
“I expect peaceful and democratic elections,” said Dimitar Stankovski, a 42-year old legal adviser in a private firm after casting his vote.
“I expect that we elect a president that will take us into Europe where we belong. I know there is a long path ahead, but we need to start somewhere.”
A recent opinion poll gave 28.8 percent support and a narrow lead to Stevo Pendarovski, who is backed by the ruling centrist coalition of the Social Democrats and the minority Albanian DUI party, which have promised to implement the name change deal.
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