Skopje, 30 April 2024 (MIA) - Presidential candidates Stevo Pendarovski and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova are of the opinion that citizens should go to the polls on May 8, when the second round of the presidential elections is to be held. Both distanced themselves from calls for a boycott.     

In Tuesday's televised debate on TV21, Siljanovska Davkova said it would be an anti-European step if the required 40-percent turnout threshold does not happen in the presidential runoff, while Pendarovski said that the Constitution must be respected, although he believes that there should not be a lower threshold.

"If the 40-percent turnout threshold does not happen, it will be another anti-European step, because the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR, after at least four opinions, say that it is totally illogical to have a 40-percent turnout threshold in the second election round, because when two candidates qualify, one should be elected with a relative majority," said Siljanovska Davkova. 

She added that the calls for boycott were not at all in the spirit of parliamentary democracy. 

According to Pendarovski, it is not a question of whether or not a candidate is calling for a boycott, but of a constitutional provision that must be respected, which states that 40 percent of the electorate must turn out in order to have a valid president.

"Unfortunately, this is a matter of a constitutional provision that must be respected, which says that 40 percent of the electorate must turn out in order to have a valid president. I am in favor of changing the Constitution and not having a lower threshold, because whoever wants to vote has the right to vote," said Pendarovski.  

Calls for a boycott, he added, come from the political structure that supports Siljanovska Davkova. According to Pendarovski, a president should be elected on May 8 because otherwise the country would enter into a political crisis and uncertainty.

Photo: MIA archive