[2][3] In the second round, Siljanovska defeated the incumbent Pendarovski with 69% of the vote and became the first woman to be elected president of North Macedonia.

However, the XXXI amendment approved on 9 January 2009 lowered the threshold to 40%,[7] as the then-government feared the trend of reducing turnouts would lead to presidential elections being frequently invalidated.

[8] In order to contest the election, potential candidates are required to collect signatures from at least 10,000 registered voters or 30 MPs.

[10] Stevo Pendarovski supported revising the constitution to include recognition of a Bulgarian minority in North Macedonia, a condition set by Bulgaria to allow the country's accession to the European Union.

Pendarovski called on fighting corruption through taking on organized criminal groups, while Siljanovska-Davkova focused on the judiciary in her anti-corruption stance.