Skopje, 17 April 2024 (MIA) – Political parties will sign Wednesday the Code of Fair and Democratic Elections, a day ahead of the official start of the campaign for parliamentary elections.

Starting tomorrow until midnight on April 22, the campaigns for both the presidential and parliamentary elections will overlap, with the parliamentary campaign continuing during the period of election silence for the presidential elections.

The government at its Tuesday session decided that April 24 (Wednesday) and May 8 (Wednesday) will be non-business days this year. According to an official press release, the decision is to facilitate the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for April 24 and May 8. All citizens across the country should get those two days off from work, the release says, in the hopes of increasing voter turnout.

The presidential candidates continue their election activities on Wednesday.

VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, will present her program to the citizens of Chashka, Sveti Nikole, and Veles. The presidential candidate of the ZNAM Movement - For Our Macedonia, Maksim Dimitrievski, will meet citizens of Chucher-Sandevo, Butel, Chair, and Gazi Baba. Worth It coalition presidential candidate, Arben Taravari, is to present election platform before the citizens of Lipkovo municipality. GROM presidential candidate Stevcho Jakimovski to meet citiznes of Struga, Ohrid and Bitola.

Four years ago, the SDSM-led government succeeded in reaching an agreement with Greece and brought the country into NATO, a prerequisite for any economic development, President Stevo Pendarovski said at a reelection rally in Veles late on Tuesday.

"For thirty years, no one had the courage, no one had enough knowledge and dedication to solve that problem, which the world's greatest diplomats thought was unsolvable. This political structure, which I also belong to, solved it and made Macedonia a member of the largest alliance. This way, Macedonia with its 1.8 million people is together with the world's largest and most developed superpowers," Pendarovski said.

He told his opponent from VMRO-DPMNE, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, that without the Prespa Agreement there would be no membership in NATO. Pendarovski said she had either underestimated the voters' intelligence or did not know what she was saying.

"Four years ago, this lady said in a TV show that the signatories of the Prespa Agreement should be criminally prosecuted, that they should be held criminally accountable. And now you say it is good we are a member of NATO. Well, madam, without Prespa there is no NATO," Pendarovski pointed out.

Earlier, Pendarovski held a rally in Chashka and Sveti Nikole, where he spoke about the benefits of the NATO membership and the beginning of negotiations with the EU.

"These elections are very important. We cannot allow the previous government to come back. We have reached good agreements, made peace and agreed with our neighbors. They want to renegotiate, so we lose another 10-15 years. By then, these children we see here will have left Macedonia," Pendarovski said.

We have to have constitutional patriotism. We have to respect the fundamental provisions of the Constitution, and especially the Preamble, which is a small text preceding the Constitution, but it is the very philosophy of the Constitution; it is the Macedonian constitutional and legal memory, VMRO-DPMNE's presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska Davkova said at a Gevgelija rally on Tuesday evening.

"You cannot change facts like those from ASNOM or those about the creation of the Macedonian state, which happened on Sept. 8. You can't run away from it. No one does this. If it is only you doing it, everyone will be surprised and will not respect you," Siljanovska Davkova said.

She added that most constitutional amendments so far had not been made for the sake of building a functional and democratic state. There were many problematic solutions in the Constitution that needed to be amended, she said.

"We need to think carefully before any constitutional amendments. We should seek consensus. Since everyone is now saying we need constitutional amendments, let me say: Yes, we need constitutional amendments but not for reworking the Preamble and turning it into a phone book listing all possible neighbors," she said, adding that amendments were needed on determining how the mandate for forming the government was to be given, for instance.

VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski also spoke at the Gevgelija rally.

"These elections are also about getting Macedonia back into the hands of the people. The changes are in your hands, so that Macedonia can be yours again, yours again," Mickoski said.

DUI leader Ali Ahmeti, presenting Bujar Osmani as presidential candidate, highlighted that VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM have already joined forces against DUI's and the European Front's demand for the electing the president in the Parliament. DUI and the European Front remind both parties that, as the first Albanian prime minister was elected, so should the first Albanian president be, as pointed out by the party.

ZNAM Movement presidential candidate Makism Dimitrievski challenged his opponents Stevo Pendarovski and Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova to a televised debate so that citizens could then cast an informed vote.

According to Dimitrievski, all the candidates should commit to taking part in a TV debate, especially "those from the Macedonian and the Albanian blocs who are most favoured in the media space".

Dimitrievski, who had meetings with citizens at the Green Market in downtown Skopje on Tuesday, said presidential candidates from smaller parties and other entities are almost invisible to the public, adding that not all candidates are equally represented in the campaign.

Talking to voters in person is how I present my election platform but it is a shame that candidates will not commit to a public debate during this presidential election campaign, said Levica's presidential candidate Biljana Vankovska in Kochani on Tuesday.

"It is shameful for all of us not to directly confront our opponents," she said.

"I am embarrassed for the others. I am mostly thinking of candidates who are doctors of science, professors, provoking each other and inviting each other to special debates, while ignoring everyone else.

"All seven of us deserve equal treatment, equal media opportunities, to say what we have in our platforms, briefly and in a format standard for Western countries and all democracies. I keep saying, and appealing, that we owe it to the citizens, because they have given us 10,000 signatures and much more.

Our country is behind in economy, in justice, in democracy, in human rights of citizens, nations, minorities, in employment, in development; so it's time for change – out with the old and in with the new: a new President, a new government, a new Constitution for a country that will belong to everyone and will be loved by everyone, Worth It coalition presidential candidate Arben Taravari said at a Debar election rally on Tuesday evening.

He also announced a ban on gambling and fast loans, which he said had pushed citizens in enormous debt. He added that the state or government should help citizens in covering these debts.

The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services released Tuesday the second monitoring report on the media representation for the presidential and parliamentary elections, covering the period from March 8 to April 3, 2024.

The monitoring covered nine national television programming services: MRT1, MRT2, Alsat-M TV, Alfa TV, Kanal 5 TV, Sitel TV, Telma TV, 21-M TV and 24 Vesti TV. The Report analyzes the news items aired in the central editions of their newscasts/TV journals, related to pre-election topics and domestic current affairs socio-political developments, as well as the other types of shows within this thematic scope.