After a tense night of protests by the Student Plenum on one side, and the transportation of the ballot boxes by representatives of the Student Parliament of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University under police protection on the other, the student organization came out with an announcement that votes have been counted and that Davor Popovski is the new Student Parliament president.
According to the announcement of Student Parliament, Popovski won 3,851 votes, while the second candidate Stefan Vasilevski won 1,275 votes. There were 138 invalid ballots, while a total of 5,264 students voted.
The Student parliament reported that the elections were held at ballot places in all 23 faculties, between 09:00 am and 04:00 pm.
The candidates: Stefan Vasilevski from the Medical Faculty got the support from 6 student parliaments, while Davor Popovski got the support of 7 faculty-student parliaments.
"We congratulate the candidates for their proper campaigns, which were based on programs that offer projects and opportunities for students", the Student Parliament of Ss. Cyril and Methodius university said.
According to the Student parliament, the electoral process was held in a fair and democratic atmosphere and the students were able to give their vote and elect their leader in a dignified manner.
"During the election process there were scandalizing tendencies on part of the Student Plenum, which is politically motivated and attempted to interfere in the voting process and prevent students in expressing their democratic right to vote, which is a direct attack on the freedom of student expression", the Student Parliament of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University said.
The situation on Thursday was tense. There was an incident at the Faculty of Law after the voting ended when the ballot box was taken out of the faculty. Yet, tensions did not end there. A larger group of students, supporters of Student Plenum, said that the ballot boxes had been stolen and overtook the offices of the university's Student Parliament.
So as to prevent incidents, the police had to intervene and separate the opposing student organizations. Tensions lasted until 02:00 am Friday, and a part of the Teodosij Gologanov boulevard, where the offices of the Student Parliament are located, was blocked.
The Student parliament accused the Student Plenum of coming out with speculations that 3 ballot boxes were stolen and pointed out that such an information was intended for scandalizing the free and democratic elections.
"Due to threats by the Student Plenum, the three boxes with ballots from the Medical Faculty, were taken back by the election commission and are located at the Medical faculty, from where with the help of the police they will be taken back to the headquarters of the Student Parliament of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University. Despite appeals for respecting the students' right to vote, the Student Plenum disrespected this right and tried to interrupt the electoral process", their report stated.
The student Plenum pointed out that elections were a fiasco in terms of the number of people that voted, and so the need for the seizing of the boxes came up.
"We demand from the University's Student Parliament that it annuls elections immediately. But, since we doubt that Kiril Spirovski and his election commission will annul the elections, we call on Ss. Cyril and Methodius University not to acknowledge the results from the elections. We also demand that the university start a proceeding against those that are not part of the university but instigated violence against the students. The security of the Faculty of Law and the police witnessed the violence but failed to take actions against it", the Student Plenum reacted.