Macedonian Opposition Party Hopes President To Keep Vow To Boycott Name Change Referendum

The opposition United Macedonia party hopes Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov will keep his promise not to attend the upcoming referendum on the bilateral deal with Greece on the country's renaming, party president Janko Bachev told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2018) The opposition United Macedonia party hopes Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov will keep his promise not to attend the upcoming referendum on the bilateral deal with Greece on the country's renaming, party president Janko Bachev told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Ivanov announced last week that he would boycott the referendum scheduled to take place on September 30, calling on his compatriots to do the same.

"The statement given by President Ivanov that he will not vote in the referendum on September 30 is the only right answer, and it is in line with the highest Macedonian national and state interests," Bachev said.

Bachev expressed hope that the Macedonian president would "withstand the pressure" and would not change his mind before the referendum.

"Now we are left with a hope that Ivanov will not repeat what he did in May 2017, when he gave the mandate to [Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran] Zaev to form the puppet government," Bachev stressed, adding that his party has been campaigning against the referendum for the last 20 days.

On June 17, the Greek and Macedonian foreign ministers signed an agreement on the Republic of Macedonia's renaming to the Republic of North Macedonia following a decades-long dispute.

Ivanov has been consistently opposing the deal, saying that it not only changes the name of the country but also creates a "new semi-sovereign state ... with a new internal and international legal identity."