North Macedonia governing parties to propose joint candidate for president

North Macedonia governing parties to propose joint candidate for president
DUI leader Ali Ahmeti says his party agreed with the senior ruling SDSM to field a single candidate in the upcoming presidential election. / DUI
By bne IntelliNews February 28, 2019

North Macedonia’s two governing parties on March 1 will propose a joint candidate to run for president in the upcoming election, a leader of the junior coalition partner said.

The announcement seems to dispel rumours of a crisis within the coalition between the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and its junior partner the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). The two parties came to power at the end of May 2017.

The decision to field a single candidate was made at a meeting between SDSM leader and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and DUI leader Ali Ahmeti.

Macedonia is to hold the first round of the presidential election on April 21. This will be the sixth presidential vote in the country. The new president will replace Gjorge Ivanov, a former law professor, who was supported by the now opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. Ivanov has served two five-year mandates.

“We agreed to come out with a common candidate in the upcoming election,” Ahmeti said following the meeting.

Previously rumours had circulated of a crisis in the coalition after the speaker of the parliament, Talat Xhaferi from DUI, interrupted the session on February 24 at which MPs were to vote to strip the immunity of the former head of the parliament, Trajko Veljanovski, so that he can stand trial.

Veljanovski was accused of being one of the organisers of the April 2017 parliament violence, which left 100 people injured, but he was released due to the immunity he enjoys as an MP. He denied he was one of the organisers.

The session ended without the removal of Veljanovski’s immunity. The SDSM was angered by the move of the speaker and boycotted parliament sessions for a few days.

Xhaferi said that he acted in line with procedures, as the parliament commission for immunity issues did not recommend the removal of Veljanovski's immunity, as there were same number of yes and no votes.

Both government parties have denied there is a crisis in the coalition.

The opposition VMRO-DPMNE has already proposed Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, a law professor, as its candidate for president.

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