Seven candidates run for president in North Macedonia

(ANSA) - SKOPJE, 09 MAR - Seven candidates are running in North Macedonia for the presidential elections on April 24. The deadline for collecting the 10,000 signatures needed to validate their candidacy expired last midnight.
    Those with the best chances seem to be outgoing President Stevo Pendarovski, candidate of the ruling Social Democratic Party (SDSM) who is running for a second five-year term, and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, a member of parliament and professor at the Skopje Law School, who is a candidate of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, the most significant opposition force. The two had also challenged each other in the previous 2019 presidential election when Pendarovski won in the runoff.
    The other candidates are Bujar Osmani, incumbent foreign minister, candidate of the DUI, the most prominent Albanian minority party participating in the governing coalition in Skopje; Biljana Vankovska, professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje, candidate of the Levica (Left) party; Arben Taravari, mayor of Gostivar, candidate of the Albanian 'Vredi' party coalition (opposition); Maksim Dimitrievski, mayor of Kumanovo, candidate of the new 'For Our Macedonia' party; Stevco Jakimovski, head of a district in the capital, Skopje.
    If none of the candidates gets 50 percent plus one vote in the first round on April 24, the top two will go to a runoff on May 8, the day legislative elections are scheduled in North Macedonia. (ANSA).