The Northern Local Elections are being held in Northern Macedonia today, electing mayors and councilors in 80 municipalities and the City of Skopje.

At 3 polling stations, citizens can cast their ballots for a total of 480 candidates, of which 10 for mayors and the rest for councilors, on 831 lists submitted by a group of independent voters, and 299 lists of political parties and coalitions.

1 citizens have the right to vote. Out of the total number of voters, 824 are registered in the excerpts of the Voters' List. on election day they are serving prison sentences or are in custody: 864 persons in extra-family accommodation facilities and six voters who, according to the records of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, are registered as displaced persons.

Voting starts at 7 am and will last until 19 pm. If the voting is interrupted for more than one hour, it will continue for as long as the interruption lasted, but not longer than three hours. At 19:00 the polling stations close. Voters found in the polling station are allowed to vote. The polling station where all citizens registered in the excerpt from the Voters' List voted could be closed before 19:00, with the prior consent of the competent MEC, but it does not start counting the votes before 19:00.

The day before, the sick, infirm, people with Covid-19, prisoners, detainees, nursing homes and internally displaced persons voted.

For the first time in these elections, the identity of the voters will be checked with devices for biometric identification of the fingerprint, for which the company "Dermalog" has procured 4000 devices and an appropriate system for their use. For the members of the MECs and the election boards that will manage these devices, the SEC conducted four cycles of education and hired 320 IT experts to enable the conduct of the elections with these elections to pass with as few interruptions and problems as possible. Additionally, another 80 IT experts have been hired by the company "Dermalog".

The results of the first round of elections are expected around midnight. In the first round of voting for mayor, the candidate who received the majority of votes from the voters who voted is elected, if one third of the total number of voters registered in the excerpt from the Voters' List for the respective municipality went to the polls. If in the first round of voting for election of mayor of the municipality, ie the city of Skopje, one third of the total number of voters registered in the excerpt from the Voters' List for the respective municipality, ie the city of Skopje, the entire election procedure is repeated.

If in the first round no candidate for mayor of the municipality received the required majority of votes in accordance with Article 132 paragraph 1 of the Electoral Code, in the second round votes are cast for the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round. The second round of voting is held within 14 days from the day of the end of the first round of voting. In the second round of voting for mayor, the candidate who received the largest number of votes was elected.

If the mayor is not elected after the second round for any reason, the election commission shall inform the Government within 15 days from the end of the elections.

Councilors are elected in the first round of elections and the proportional model is used, with the distribution of seats based on the D'Hondt formula.

The local elections will be monitored by 1045 observers, of which 714 are domestic. The OSCE / ODIHR EOM has accredited 217 observers.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, local elections will be conducted in compliance with the general Covid-19 protection measures, so that voters and all election board members will have to wear protective masks and use disinfectant.

Source: MIA