Stevo Pendarovski, the 55-year-old former political-science professor won the presidential runoff vote amid promises to push the Balkan state towards NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and European Union membership. Pendarovski had 51.7% of votes whereas Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, his challenger, had 44.7% votes. Siljanovska-Davkova is North Macedonia's first female candidate and a university professor. The main conservative opposition VMRO DPMNE (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity) party (which backed Siljanovska-Davkova) having seen many irregularities in the election procedure, accused the government of "electoral engineering".
