Leading in opinion polls among the presidential candidates is George Ivanov from the ruling conservative VMRO-DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

VOA: standard.2009.03.22

Presidential candidate Ivanov has told his supporters he wants to help overcome nationalistic divisions in Macedonia, which narrowly averted civil war in 2001, following a peace deal between ethnic-Albanian fighters and Macedonian security forces.

VOA: standard.2009.03.22