At stake in this election:

• The office of President of Macedonia

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Kiro GLIGOROV
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Ljubčo GEORGIEVSKI
• Assembly: Macedonia has a unicameral Assembly (Sobranie) with 120 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.
• The Prime Minister is elected by parliament.
• In the Assembly (Sobranie), 35 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms and 85 members are elected by absolute majority vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms.***

*** The country is divided in 6 electoral districts,with a district magnitude of 20 members. No legal threshold is required for a party to enter the parliament. Votes are tabulated using the D'Hondt formula. At least 30 percent of the candidates on each party list must be of different gender

Main Candidates in the Second Round of the Presidential race:

• Tito PETKOVSKI
  • Party: Social Democratic Union of Macedonia / Социјалдемократски сојуз на Македонија, Socijaldemokratski sojuz na Makedonija (SDSM)
• Boris TRAJKOVSKI
  • Party: Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity / Внатрешна македонска револуционерна организација – Демократска партија за македонско национално един (VMRO–DPMNE)

Main Candidates in the First Round of the Presidential race:

• Tito PETKOVSKI
  • Party: Social Democratic Union of Macedonia / Социјалдемократски сојуз на Македонија, Socijaldemokratski sojuz na Makedonija (SDSM)
• Boris TRAJKOVSKI
  • Party: Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity / Внатрешна македонска револуционерна организација – Демократска партија за македонско национално един (VMRO–DPMNE)
• Vasil Tupurkovski TUPURKOVSKI
  • Party: Democratic Alternative / Демократска алтернатива, ДА, Demokratska Alternativa (DA)
• Muharem NEXIPI
  • Party: Party for Democratic Prosperity of Albanians (PDPA)
• Stojan ANDOV
  • Party: Liberal Democratic Party / Либерално-Демократска Партија, Liberalno-Demokratska Partija
• Muhamet HALILI
  • Party: Party for Democratic Prosperity / Партија за демократски просперитет

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 1,999,362 (1999)
• Registered Voters: 1,610,340 (October 1999)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 999,310 (1999)

·         Is Macedonia a signatory to CEDAW: N/A

·         Has Macedonia ratified CEDAW: Yes, succesion (18 January 1994)

·         Gender Quota: Yes

·         Female candidates in this election: No

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 9 (following the 1998 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 81 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Medium (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Macedonia a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has Macedonia ratified CRPD: Yes (29 December 2011)

·         Population with a disability: 299,904 (est.)