Parliamentary elections were held in North Macedonia on 8 May 2024. The slow pace of EU integration and corruption were the main issues during the campaign.

The right-wing opposition coalition Your Macedonia, led by the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, decisively won the election. The coalition received 45% of the vote and 58 seats, 3 short of an outright majority. The incumbent center-left coalition led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia collapsed to 16% of the popular vote and lost 28 seats. The second round of the 2024 presidential election was held on the same day, and was won by the VMRO-DPMNE candidate, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova.

Electoral system

Of the 123 seats in the Assembly of the Republic, 120 are elected from six 20-seat constituencies in North Macedonia using closed list proportional representation, with seats allocated using the d'Hondt method. The remaining three seats are elected by Macedonians living abroad,Electoral system IPU but are only filled if the number of votes exceeds that of the elected candidate with the fewest votes in North Macedonia in the previous election. If a list crosses this threshold, it wins one seat; to win two seats, a list needs to win twice the number of votes, and to win three seats the threshold is three times the number of votes. These seats were not filled in the 2016 elections due to insufficient turnout.Early Parliamentary Elections 11 December 2016 OSCE

For this election, more than 1,700 candidates were running for the Assembly.

Campaign Among significant issues during the election was corruption. The opposition VMRO-DPMNE accused the ruling coalition of presiding over a "pandemic" of corruption in the country, while the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, a member of the coalition, supported the confiscation of illegally acquired property from corrupt officials. The ruling government supported revising the Constitution to include recognition of a Bulgarian minority in North Macedonia, a condition set by Bulgaria to allow the country's accession to the European Union. The VMRO-DPMNE called the acceptance of such conditions a "capitulation" to Bulgaria. It has also expressed interest in forming a coalition government with the VLEN coalition comprising ethnic Albanian parties but has ruled out entering into one with the Democratic Union for Integration, which is part of the ruling coalition and which it had called "corrupt". The VMRO-DPMNE also pledged to create tens of thousands of jobs amid the country's sluggish economic situation, mass emigration and rising inflation.

Opinion polls

Polling firm Fieldwork date SamplesizeFor a EuropeanFutureVLENEuropeanFront Your Macedonia Levica ZNAM Others Lead SDSMLDP/DOMBesa LD AASh BDI PDSh VMRO-DPMNE2024 election8 May 2024978,98015.7810.9214.0644.587.015.741.91 28.82024 presidential election24 Apr 2024881,03920.59.513.741.24.79.50.9 20.7CRPC20 Apr 2024125025.614.59.5387.25.00.2 11.2МКД.мк8–13 Apr 2024120022.89.912.741.26.56.10.818.4CRPC8–13 Apr 2024121026.812.711.337.56.45.3 10.7МКД.мк 15–24 Mar 2024120016.011.51.613.040.87.98.20.7 24.8CRPC4–7 Mar 2024108524.613.611.639.45.55.3 14.8IPIS20 Feb 2024121221.88.64.111.538.66.05.02.4 18.8IPDV 105023.04.43.31.68.29.735.65.98.2 12.6IPIS 105521.84.41.93.53.910.836.26.85.62.1 17.4IPIS 1,11221.64.4512.438.212.35.70.8 16.6IRI 1,204177281432117 15NDI 1,00323.66.66.311.439.610.33.12 16IPIS Mar 20231,11427.18.54.927.139.210.19.2 11.1IDSCS 1,002242718389 14МКД.мк 1,20022.30.24.16.714.739.28.13.4 16.9IRI 1,20016.37.07.813.333.312.38.8 17МКД.мк 1,20020.30.97.33.53.913.60.740.98.91.1 20.6IPIS 1,11130.1 2.8 1.97.113.4 39.45.4 9.3 IPIS 1,10228.92.82.6 8.011.0 37.76.6 8.82021 Skopje election – 24.04 4.20 1.005.17 11.91 35.89 9.19 4.17 11.9 Kantar TNS Brima 1,20130.87.4 9.511.41.727.67.4 3.2 Kantar TNS Brima 1,19433.06.810.311.02.828.57.5 4.5Kantar TNS Brima 1,22227.96.68.211.51.627.99.8 Tie IPIS 1,10931.91.7 8.910.4 34.76.6 2.8 M-Prospect 1,000 31.7 4.1 0.9 7.8 11.4 2.4 30.8 10.6 0.3 0.92020 parliamentary election – 35.89 8.95 11.48 1.53 34.57 4.103.49 1.3

Hypothetical polls Nikola Gruevski forms a new party

Polling firm Fieldwork date Samplesize SDSMLDP/DOMBesa PDSh A ASh VMRO-DPMNE BDI Levica ZNAM Gruevski Others LeadStratum R&D 1,11227.57.34.717.610.89.13.116.03.89.9

Results The election resulted in a landslide victory for the national conservative VMRO-DPMNE and its Your Macedonia coalition, winning 58 seats in the Assembly, just three shy of an outright majority. Their main rivals, the incumbent pro-European SDSM and its For a European Future coalition, ended up in distant third place, winning 18 seats, their worst ever result. All other parties and coalitions that won seats include: the European Front coalition with 18 seats and the VLEN Coalition with 14 seats (both representing national minorities), the left-wing nationalist The Left with six seats, as well as the left-wing populist For Our Macedonia Movement (ZNAM) with six seats. Turnout was 55%. While initially allocated 19 and 13 seats respectively, following repollings in Ohrid, Struga and other areas on 22 May 2024 led to the European Front losing one seat in favor of the VLEN coalition allowing SDSM and its For a European Future coalition to become the second biggest group in the Assembly.

Aftermath Social Democrat leader Dimitar Kovačevski conceded defeat and announced that he would resign as party leader once a successor had been elected. VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said that “the people have taught the government its most important lesson and saved their country" and pledged to hold into account “every last person who committed a crime and committed corruption".

According to international observers, the elections were "competitive and an extensive and pluralistic campaign helped voters to make an informed choice, but marred by negative rhetoric with nationalistic slogans, as well as shortcomings in the legislation and insufficient oversight of campaign finances".

On 6 June, Mickoski was formally asked by President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova to form the next government, after he had unveiled a coalition agreement with the VLEN Coalition and For Our Macedonia (ZNAM). The investiture vote for Mickoski took place on 24 June, with 77 votes in favor, 22 against and 21 absent. The cabinet is expected to have 24 members, of which sixteen from the VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition Your Macedonia, six from the VLEN coalition block of Albanian opposition parties, and two from ZNAM.

Reactions — Prime Minister Viktor Orbán congratulated the VMRO-DPMNE on its "well-deserved and historic victory" in the presidential and parliamentary elections. Orban added that he looked forward to working together on giving North Macedonia a "new momentum to the EU accession process". — Ambassador Angela Aggeler expressed her congratulations "to all those citizens who exercised their right to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections."

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