Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on Albania & Republic of Macedonia

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STAT	Albania	Republic of Macedonia	HISTORY
Head of state > Term limit for head of state	5 Ranked 72nd. The same as Republic of Macedonia	5 Ranked 82nd.
President	Bujar Nishani	Gjorge Ivanov
President > Profile	<p>Bujar Nishani was elected president by parliament in June 2012, replacing Bamir Topi when his mandate came to an end.</p> <p>The main opposition Socialist Party boycotted the vote, and Mr Nishani was the only candidate put forward by the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Sali Berisha&#039;s Democratic Party. </p> <p>Albania had been mired in political crisis for three years since the Socialists accused the Democrats of electoral fraud after the June 2009 legislative polls, and the failure to agree a consensus presidential candidate marked a setback for European Union efforts to ease political tensions. Government and opposition leaders traded accusations of sabotage throughout the process, which went through several rounds. </p> <p>Mr Nishani, 46, was the country&#039;s interior minister at the time of his election. He is a graduate of Albania&#039;s military academy and holds degrees in law and European studies. </p> <p>The president, who serves a five-year term, has an important role as the head of the legal system and commander of the country&#039;s armed forces.</p>	<p>Professor Gjorgje Ivanov was sworn in as Macedonia&#039;s fourth democratically-elected president on 12 May 2009, following his victory in the second round of the presidential election.</p> <p>Although he was put forward as a presidential candidate by the governing VMRO-DPMNE party, he is not a member.</p> <p>President Ivanov, who was born in 1960, has spent most of his professional life as a university law professor.</p> <p>A key priority of Mr Ivanov&#039;s presidency has been to resolve Macedonia&#039;s long-standing name dispute with Greece.</p> <p>His predecessor, Social Democrat Branko Crvenkovski, who was elected in 2004, won praise in the West for supporting reconciliation with the substantial Albanian minority.</p> <p>Macedonia&#039;s presidents are directly elected for a five-year term. The president appoints the prime minister, and legislative power is vested in parliament.</p>
President > Summary	Mr Nishani is a former interior minister	President Gjorge Ivanov has made it his mission to improve relations with neighbouring Greece
Prime minister	Edi Rama	Nikola Gruevski
Prime minister > Profile	<p>Edi Rama became prime minister in September 2013, three months after elections in which his Socialist Party won a landslide victory that brought to an end eight years of conservative rule.</p> <p>Mr Rama&#039;s main campaign pledges were to revive Albania&#039;s ailing economy, combat widespread corruption and crime, and speed up the country&#039;s integration into the European Union.</p><p>The election was closely monitored by the EU, which has twice rejected Albania&#039;s membership application and warned that the poll would be &quot;a crucial test&quot; for its further progress towards integration in the bloc.</p> <p>The outcome of the previous election, which returned the centre-right Democratic Party to power in 2009 by an extremely slender margin, was hotly disputed by the Socialists, who refused to recognise the result and launched a campaign of mass protests and civil disobedience in support of demands for a recount.</p> <p>Mr Rama became the leader of the Socialists in 2005 and spearheaded the party&#039;s challenging of the 2009 election outcome. The dispute over the result appeared at times to be bringing the country to the edge of civil conflict, and became a significant obstacle to Albania&#039;s EU integration.</p> <p>His predecessor as prime minister, Sali Berisha, dominated the country&#039;s political scene for more than 20 years, but by 2013 the electorate appeared to have become tired of the lack of economic progress under Mr Berisha and his perceived failure to tackle organised crime.</p> <p>Edi Rama is a painter-turned-politician who studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris and during the 1990s made his home in the French capital.</p> <p>On his return to Albania, he became minister of culture in the Socialist government of Fatos Nano in 1998.</p> <p>In 2000, he was elected mayor of Tirana - a position he held until 2011. As mayor, he set out to remake the impoverished capital into a lively modern city, and embarked on a number of controversial projects, one of which was to order the painting of many old buildings in what became known as Edi Rama colours - bright pink, yellow, green and violet.</p> <p>Mr Rama&#039;s critics claimed that he devoted too much attention to cosmetic changes and failed to get to grips with major problems such as the unreliability of basic services in Tirana.</p> <p>As prime minister, he faces many tough challenges. His pledge to improve living standards - in a country where many people depend heavily on financial aid from the large Albanian diaspora in Western Europe and the United States - will be especially difficult to realise.</p> <p>A fluent speaker of English, French and Italian, Mr Rama is described by observers as a dynamic man with a strong personality.</p> <p>The new cabinet that he presented to parliament at the beginning of his tenure consists of mostly youthful political newcomers and includes six women - an unprecedented step in Albania.</p>	<p>Nikola Gruevski, leader of the centre-right VMRO-DPMNE, won a snap election in June 2011 - the party&#039;s third consecutive electoral victory.</p> <p>The early election followed an opposition walkout in Parliament, sparked by allegations that the government was interfering in the media.</p> <p>Following the 2011 election, Mr Gruevski formed a coalition government with Macedonia&#039;s largest Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI), which had been his coalition partner since the previous election.</p> <p>Mr Gruevski said his priorities would be accession to the EU and Nato, fighting corruption and organised crime, boosting the economy and lowering unemployment.</p> <p>He said he was willing to continue political dialogue with Greece over the use of the name Macedonia. But this cause has not been helped by his party&#039;s nationalistic policy of &quot;ancient Macedonism&quot; or &quot;Antiquisation&quot;, in which ancient figures such as Alexander the Great and Philip of Macedon are claimed to be the forebears of modern Macedonians.</p> <p>Mr Gruevski first become prime minister after the July 2006 election, and his party went on to win early elections in 2008.</p> <p>The prime minister is a former World Bank economist and finance minister.</p>
Prime minister > Summary	Mr Rama was a charismatic mayor of Tirana before becoming prime minister	Nikola Gruevski has family roots in the Greek region of Macedonia

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