Skopje, 22 March 2024 (MIA) – In accordance with the amendments of the Electoral Code and with the official confirmation of presidential candidacies by the State Election Commission, the candidates at the coming presidential elections are allowed to hold one promotional public event and are not allowed to spend funds from the dedicated election campaign account until the beginning of the campaign on April 4.

Article 69 of the Electoral Code states that the election campaign is understood as a public gathering and other public events organized by the election campaign participant, public display of posters, video presentations in public places, electoral media and internet presentation, dissemination of printed materials and public presentation of confirmed candidates and their programmes by the relevant election management bodies. Paragraph 2 of the Article states that the campaign begins 20 days before election day both in the first and the second round of elections, it cannot continue over the last 24 hours before election day and on election day.

The candidates can file a complaint about a violation of the provisions from the Article, and the State Election Commission is required to look into the allegations and address the filed complaint in a period no longer than 72 hours from the date of the filing of the complaint. The party that files a complaint has a right to appeal the Commission’s decision at the Administrative Court within a timeframe of 48 hours since they received the decision. The Administrative Court is obliged to adopt a decision within 72 hours of the appeal.

The State Election Commission at a session on Thursday unanimously confirmed the 2024 presidential bids submitted by Stevo Pendarovski (SDSM-led coalition), Stevcho Jakimovski (GROM), Maksim Dimitrievski (ZNAM), Arben Taravari (Worth It coalition), Biljana Vankovska (Levica), Bujar Osmani (DUI) and Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova (VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition).