The political framework of North Macedonia

Political Outline

Current Political Leaders: President: Gordana SILJANOVSKA-DAVKOVA (since 12 May 2024)
Prime Minister: Hristijan MICKOSKI (since 23 June 2024)
Next Election Dates: President: 2029
Legislative: May 2028
Main Political Parties: The country's main political divisions are often ethnically based. Political parties typically represent different ethnic groups: the majority Slavo-Macedonians, and minorities including Albanians and Turks. The major political parties represented in the Assembly following the 2024 elections include:

- Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE): centre-right, national conservative; represents ethnic Macedonians. Leads the "Your Macedonia" coalition.
- Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM): centre-left, social democratic; supports EU integration and interethnic cooperation. Leads the "For a European Future" coalition.
- European Front: coalition led by BDI; represents Albanian and other minority interests.
- VLEN Coalition: supports Albanian interests; centre-right.
- The Left (Levica): socialist, nationalist; critical of Western influence.
- For Our Macedonia (ZNAM): left-wing populist; founded by former SDSM members.
Executive Power: North Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, following a referendum on September 8. The country is a unitary parliamentary republic; its current constitution was adopted on November 17, 1991, and came into force on November 20, 1991.
The President of North Macedonia is elected by popular vote for a five-year term, renewable once, and serves primarily a ceremonial role. Executive power is vested in the Prime Minister, who is usually the leader of the majority party or coalition in the Assembly and is appointed by the Assembly to form and lead the government.
Legislative Power: Legislative power is exercised by the Parliament (called the Sobranie), which is the central institution of the political system. It is unicameral and composed of 120 members (though the Constitution allows for 120–140), elected for four-year terms in multi-member constituencies through closed-list proportional representation. Additionally, the law provides for up to three members to be elected by the diaspora through a simple majority vote, contingent upon sufficient voter turnout; these seats have remained vacant in recent elections due to low participation.

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

The world rankings, published annually, measures violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position are assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire incorporating the main criteria (44 in total) to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. This questionnaire was sent to partner organisations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).

World Rank:: 90/180

Indicator of Political Freedom

Definition

Definition:

The Indicator of Political Freedom provides an annual evaluation of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights questions (on Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, Functioning of Government) and 15 civil liberties questions (on Freedom of Expression, Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights). Scores are awarded to each of these questions on a scale of 0 to 4, where a score of 0 represents the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of rights or liberties present. The total score awarded to the political rights and civil liberties checklist determines the political rights and civil liberties rating. Each rating of 1 through 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of freedom, corresponds to a range of total scores.

Ranking:: Partly Free
Political Freedom:: 3/7

Political freedom in the world (interactive map)
Source: Freedom in the World Report, Freedom House

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