Macedonia elects political novice as president

There were celebrations as Macedonia’s ruling party candidate Gjorge Ivanov won a landslide victory in the former Yugoslavian Republic’s presidential poll.

Ivanov, who has never run for office before, won a commanding majority over his rival, former foreign minister Ljubomir Frckovski of the main opposition SDSM party. With the election in the bag, the president-elect addressed his supporters: “More than 400,000 people gave me their votes to take responsibility for European Macedonia – Macedonians traveling without visas, Macedonia joining NATO. This responsibility is also to work on solving the problem over the name of our country with our neighbour, Greece,” said Ivanov. The job of president is largely ceremonial but it does carry with it power to influence foreign policy. But, as the winning side partied into the night, there were other concerns such as poor economic figures and an unemployment rate of 35 %.More about: Macedonia

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