February 08, 2019 - 9:58 AM
SKOPJE, Macedonia - Macedonia's parliament speaker has signed a decree declaring a presidential election will be held on April 21.
President Gjorge Ivanov is serving his second and final five-year term which ends on May 12. The next president will be the head of state of the newly renamed North Macedonia, after an agreement with Greece that ends a 27-year dispute over the country's name.
The presidency is largely a ceremonial post. Kiro Gligorov, Macedonia's first president after the country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, survived an assassination attempt in 1995. The country's second president, Boris Trajkovski, died in a plane crash in 2004.
To be elected in the first round, a candidate needs to secure more than a half of the total 1.8 million registered voters.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019