Macedonia Albanians Seek New Presidential Election Model

Macedonia's main ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, has launched a campaign for a new presidential election model in Macedonia.

The campaign slogan, “No to a One-sided President”, advocates scrapping direct elections for the post of President - and the main Albanian and Macedonian parties in parliament agreeing on a consensus candidate.

The campaign for the April 13 presidential vote began on Monday. Three hopefuls are competing against the incumbent, Gjorge Ivanov, who is seeking another term in office.

The DUI says it will spend the next 20 days of the campaign informing voters that the current election model is unjust and marginalizes Albanians, who make up a quarter of the the country's population.

“Only a wide ethnic and political consensus can ensure the multiethnic character of the presidential position," party spokesman Bujar Osmani said.

"Every other way excludes Albanians from this process, and is an anti-democratic, anti-European and unacceptable way,” he added.

After the DUI last month failed to persuade its senior partner, the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, to back its call for a “concensual president”, the party declined to nominate a candidate for the elections. It has also advised supporters to boycott the vote.

Party leader Ali Ahmeti recently said the party would dispute the legitimacy of the next president unless a new election model was adopted.

“The newly elected president elected this way, whoever that may be, will remain illegitimate for the DUI,” Ahmeti told a recent meeting of the party’s youth wing in Skopje.

Unlike the DUI, the main opposition party in the ethnic Albanian bloc, the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA...