North Macedonia elects pro-western president

North Macedonia’s pro-western candidate, Stevo Pendarovski, won a run-off presidential vote after a campaign dominated by divisions over a change to the country’s name that was agreed to mollify Greece and open the way for EU and Nato membership.

The State Election Commission results based on 99.5% the votes counted showed 51.7% of the votes going to Pendarovski, who is the candidate of the ruling coalition and a long-serving senior civil servant and academic.

His rival, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, got 44.7% of the vote.The two finished neck-and-neck in the first round of voting two weeks ago. The victory puts more wind into the sails of the ruling coalition, which expects to get a date to start EU accession talks in June and become the 30th Nato member state next year.

Via The Guardian