2014 Macedonian general election
General elections were held in the Republic of Macedonia in April 2014 to elect the President and members of parliament. The first round of the presidential elections were held on 13 April, with incumbent president Gjorge Ivanov finishing first with 53% of the vote. However, as he did not receive the support of 50% of all registered voters, a second round was held on 27 April, alongside parliamentary elections, with Ivanov and the ruling coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE claiming victory as Ivanov was elected president and the VMRO-DPMNE won 61 of the 123 seats in the Assembly. Background The parliamentary elections were brought forward to coincide with the presidential election following the failure of coalition partners VMRO-DPMNE and DUI to agree on a combined presidential candidate. President Candidates The incumbent president Gjorge Ivanov, supported by the governing party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), successfully nominated himself for reelection after collecting 63,253 signatures from citizens. The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) candidate Stevo Pendarovski was nominated by the signatures of the opposition parties' members of parliament. Other candidates nominated by over 10,000 signatures included Zoran T. Popovski from the Citizen Option for Macedonia (GROM), and from the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA). Campaign The first round of the presidential election was held on 13 April. The candidates were Gjorge Ivanov (VMRO-DPMNE), Stevo Pendarovski (SDSM), Ilijaz Halimi (DPA), and Zoran Popovski (GROM). The ethnic Albanian party Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), a junior coalition member, campaigned for boycott of the presidential election, opposing VMRO-DPMNE's decision to run Ivanov for reelection. SDSM's Pendarovski controversially visited Pristina where he criticised the government policies in terms of foreign policy and that Albania has the highest GDP in the region despite reports by institutions and other politicians saying it was Macedonia. Parliament Parties and coalitions Fourteen political parties and coalitions contested the election, having submitted candidate lists for MPs in at least one of the six constituencies within the country and the three in the diaspora. Three among them, namely, VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM and DUI, submitted their candidate lists in all nine constituencies. VMRO-DPMNE The VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition consisted of 22 parties: VMRO-DPMNE, the Socialist Party of Macedonia (SPM), the Democratic Union (DS), Democratic Renewal of Macedonia (DOM), the Democratic Party of Turks (DPTM), the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia (DPSM), the Union of Roma in Macedonia (SRM), the United Party for Emancipation (OPE), the Party of Justice (PP), the Party of the (SDAM), the Party of the Vlachs of Macedonia (PVM), the (PIR), the (BDP), (DSR), (TMRO), the (NLP), the (NDM), , VMRO-United, (), (MA), and . SDSM The SDSM-led coalition included nine parties; the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, the New Social Democratic Party (NDSP), the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), United for Macedonia (OM), the (PDT), the Party for the Full Emancipation of the Roma of Macedonia (PCER), the (SSM), the Democratic Union of the Vlachs of Macedonia (DSVM), and the (SL). GROM The Citizen Option