Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova

Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova
Гордана Силјановска-Давкова
Siljanovska-Davkova in 2024
President-elect of North Macedonia
Assuming office 12 May 2024
Prime Minister	Talat Xhaferi
Succeeding	Stevo Pendarovski
Member of the Assembly of North Macedonia
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 July 2020
Constituency	I electoral district
Minister without portfolio
In office 17 August 1992 – 20 December 1994
Prime Minister	Branko Crvenkovski
Member of the Constitutional Commission of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia
In office 25 November 1990 – 17 August 1992
Personal details
Born	(1953-05-11) 11 May 1953 Ohrid, PR Macedonia, Yugoslavia
Political party	VMRO-DPMNE
Children	2
Alma mater	Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje University of Ljubljana
Occupation	Lawyer • Professor • Politician

Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova (Macedonian: Гордана Силјановска-Давкова; born 11 May 1953) is a Macedonian university professor, lawyer, and president-elect of North Macedonia. She was a candidate for the 2019 presidential elections, losing to Stevo Pendarovski in the runoff. She ran again in the 2024 presidential elections and defeated Pendarovski by a landslide in a rematch election. She will be North Macedonia’s first female president.

Biography

Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova was born on 11 May 1953, in Ohrid, Yugoslavia (now North Macedonia). She completed her primary and secondary education in Skopje. She graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje in 1978, where she also received her master's degree. She defended her thesis titled "„Local Self-government - between Norms and Reality“ at the University of Ljubljana, and earned her PhD degree.

She became an assistant professor of political systems at the Faculty of Law in Skopje in 1989, and an associate professor of constitutional law and political systems in 1994. She became a full professor in 2004, and ever since she has taught courses on constitutional law, political systems, and contemporary political systems and local self-government. She was a member of the Constitutional Commission of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia (1990–1992) and minister without portfolio in the first cabinet of Branko Crvenkovski (1992–1994). She was also a UN expert and vice president of the Independent Local Self-Government Group of the Council of Europe. She has served as a member of the Venice Commission (2008-2016). As part of the Venice Commission, she was a member of the Sub-Commissions on Democratic Institutions, Judiciary, Latin America, and the Council for Constitutional Justice. She is the author of about 200 scientific papers on constitutional law and the political system.

From 2017–2018, as a public figure, she opposed the adoption of the Albanian language extension law. In VMRO-DPMNE's conference at Struga, she was nominated as the candidate for the party in the presidential elections of 2019. After her nomination, she promised that if she won, she would initiate a second referendum and restore the old name to the country. She was defeated by Stevo Pendarovski.

Siljanovska ran again for president in the 2024 elections. This time, she defeated the incumbent Pendarovski by a wide margin and became the first woman to be elected as president of North Macedonia.