North Macedonia flag North Macedonia: Economic and Political Overview

The political framework of North Macedonia

Political Outline

Current Political Leaders
President: Stevo PENDAROVSKI (since 12 May 2019)
Prime Minister: Dimitar KOVACEVSKI (since 16 January 2022)
Next Election Dates
President: 2024
Legislative: 2024
Main Political Parties
The country's main political differences are often ethnically fuelled, and political parties often represent different ethnic groups of the country: the majority includes Slavo-Macedonians, while the minorities are Albanian and Turkish. The major political parties include:

- Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM): centre-left, social democratic party, supports reconciliation with Albanian minorities. Leader of the centre-left coalition "We Can"
- Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE): centre-right, a Christian democratic party supporting the interests of the ethnic Slavo-Macedonian majority. Leader of the centre-right coalition (Renewal)
- Democratic Union for Integration (DUI): the largest party among the Albanian population
- Alliance for Albanians (AA): conservatism; party comprising ethnic Albanians
- The Left: socialist
- Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA): ultra-nationalist, an ethnic party of Albanians
- BESA Movement: social conservatism
- Roma People's Party: party comprising ethnic Romani
- Turkish Democratic Party: centre, party comprising of ethnic Turkish
Executive Power
North Macedonia proclaimed its independence in 1991, at the time of the dissolution of the former Federal Social Republic of Yugoslavia. The country is a federal republic, its current constitution was adopted on November 20, 1991.

The executive power is formed by the President, elected by popular vote for a five-year term renewable once, and the Prime Minister. The leader of the majority party or majority coalition is generally elected Prime Minister by the Assembly and is in charge of forming the government.

Legislative Power
The legislative power is conducted by the Parliament (called Sobranie), the central instrument of the political system. It is unicameral and the assembly is composed of 120-140 members (currently 120) who are elected every four years by direct popular vote.
 

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

Definition:

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:

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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Latest Update: December 2023