Macedonians go to polls in referendum on changing country’s name

Voters will vote Sunday on whether to change their country’s name to the ‘Republic of North Macedonia’. The popular vote was set up in a bid to resolve a decades-long dispute with neighboring Greece, which has its own province called Macedonia. Athens has long insisted that its northern neighbor’s name represents a claim on its territory and has repeatedly objected to its membership bids for the EU and NATO. Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, an opponent of the plebiscite on the name change, has said he will disregard the vote. However, supporters of the referendum, including Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, argue that the name change is simply the price to pay to join the EU and NATO.