Crvenkovski

In the presence of four presidents - Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo and Serbia, and in the absence of the VMRO-DPMNE opposition, the new president of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, took office. There were also two former presidents of the state - Branko Crvenkovski - who rarely appeared at mass events and the former one - Georgi Ivanov.

At its 27th press conference on the issue of illegal surveillance in Macedonia, the opposition Social Democrats on Tuesday presented what they claimed were secret police spreadsheets containing data about more than 20,000 eavesdropped persons.

At a post-election congress on Sunday in Skopje, party delegates reconfirmed Zaev’s leadership position after a 12-hour-long debate.

In the vote of confidence, 413 party delegates supported Zaev while 146 voted against him, with 105 abstentions.

After the former leader of Macedonian Social Democrats, SDSM, Branko Crvenkovski, urged Pendarovski to assume the party leadership from Zoran Zaev, the former presidential runner said he wished to distance himself from tensions inside the party ahead of its post-election congress on Saturday.

In his first interview since standing down as SDSM leader a year ago, Branko Crvenkovski said the opposition’s presidential candidate in the April elections should now lead the party out of its current travails.

Pendarovski, who was once a political advisor to Crvenkovski when he was head of state from 2004 to 2009, briefly told NOVA TV he had “no comment”.

Polling stations will be open until 7pm Sunday.

This is the country’s fifth presidential election since Macedonia became independent in the 1990s.

For the purposes of the presidential vote, the country and the diaspora are considered a single electoral unit.

The candidate of the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov, launches his campaign with a rally in the town of Ohrid, the party’s traditional election launch venue.

Ivanov, who is competing for a secound five-year term in office, is running under the election slogan “The State Above All”, positioning himself as a proven defender of the country's interests.