Campaign and Election
On 25 January 2009, the strongest party in the Macedonian parliament, conservative VMRO-DPMNE, appointed Ivanov as the party's presidential candidate for the 2009 Macedonian presidential election. 1,016 party delegates voted for his candidacy at the party's convention. Although he was proposed as a candidate by VMRO-DPMNE, he is not a member of the party.
During his campaign, Ivanov announced that if he is going to be elected president, he would "insist on a meeting between the President of the Republic of Macedonia and the President of the Republic of Greece" and that one of his highest priorities is the resolution of the country's long-running name dispute with Greece.
In the first round of the 2009 Macedonian presidential election 343,374 (35.06%) citizens of the Republic of Macedonia voted for Ivanov, the second being the candidate of the Social Democrats, Ljubomir Frčkoski, with 20.45% of the votes.
Ivanov won the second round of the presidential election with 453,616 votes; opposition candidate Ljubomir Frčkoski got 264,828 votes.
One day after his election, Ivanov reaffirmed his intention for a meeting to be realized between him and the president of Greece, Karolos Papoulias. He added that he will officialize his invitation just after taking office. After a meeting with the president of the Democratic Union for Integration, Ali Ahmeti, Ivanov announced that he will also include ethnic Albanian intellectuals in his future presidential cabinet.
On 16 April, Ivanov on a ceremony received the presidential certificate from the State Election Commission.
Read more about this topic: Gjorge Ivanov
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