North Macedonia’s pro-Western candidate, Stevo Pendarovski, and his main rival Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova emerged from the first round of presidential elections in a tie on Sunday.
The mixed results are seen as reflecting differences over the deal with Greece to change the country’s name to North Macedonia, which were pushed through by the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.
Results posted on North Macedonia’s State Election Commission website, based on 98 percent of the votes counted, showed Pendarovski had received 42.7 of the votes cast, while Siljanovska-Davkova had earned 42.5 percent of votes.
The two candidates will face a run-off election on May 5.
Blerim Reka, the candidate from the second-largest Albanian party, came in third with 10.4 percent of the votes.
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