Near half of Macedonians say they will not vote in the second round of the presidential election on April 5, a latest opinion poll showed on Sunday, Xinhua reported.
The poll, conducted by Macedonia's Institute for Democracy, found that 45.8 percent of the respondents say they will not cast votes, while 15 percent say they are still undecided.
Macedonia held the first round of presidential election on March 22, in which seven candidates vied for the country's five- year presidency, which is a largely ceremonial post.
The 49-year-old governing VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gjorgje Ivanov and the 51-year-old Social Democratic runner Ljubomir Frckoski have emerged as the two strongest contenders in the first round and will face each other in the run-off.
The poll, carried out on March 27 and 28 among 1,122 respondents with a margin of error at 3.1 percent, also shows Ivanov is still leading at 25.4 percent over Frckoski, who enjoys a 13.8-percent support.
Almost 1.8 million eligible voters in the western Balkan country will choose from the two candidates their fourth president since it separated from former Yugoslavia in 1991.
Under Macedonia's election law, the voter turnout in the second round of the presidential election has to be at least 40 percent for the run-off to be valid.