Police, Falsified Ballots, and the Edge of Dictatorship: Student Elections Descend into Chaos

The recent events at the Faculty of Medicine, where police intervened during student parliamentary elections, have cast a dark shadow over what should be a democratic process for students. The preliminary results, favoring the long-standing "Medicinski Krug" organization, are being contested by the "SINAPSA" list, supported by the "Students in Blockade" movement.

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The essence is that ballots of a different color appeared. That is a major irregularity, and interestingly, one was white and the other yellow, and what is typical for these yellow ballots – not a single yellow ballot, and there were over 200 of them, had the representative of the Sinapsa group circled, which is statistically practically impossible.

Professor Radan Stojanović highlighted a critical flaw: the appearance of ballots of a different color, with over 200 yellow ballots showing no vote for SINAPSA, a scenario he deems statistically impossible. This points to potential fraud that undermines the integrity of the elections.

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We are seeing something that is literally the edge of dictatorship, to the extent that it is reflected even in student parliaments. Someone falsified 200 ballots for a student parliament. That person must be held criminally responsible, because it is a criminal offense.

Adding to the concern, Professor Oliver Tošković from the Faculty of Philosophy likens the situation to the "edge of dictatorship," noting that such heavy-handed tactics, including police presence, are now extending even to student governance. The "Students in Blockade" movement decried the use of police force, stating that university autonomy is not defended by declarations but by the absence of force, and they vow to defend their freedoms.

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It is not the same whether four or five students who are favorites of the authorities will sit on the Faculty Council, or whether those four or five students are independent in that sense and represent the students in blockade. The main battle is about how many representatives each side will have in the faculty bodies where important decisions for the functioning of the faculty are made.

The core issue, as explained by Professor Stojanović, is the composition of faculty bodies where crucial decisions are made. The number of student representatives, whether aligned with the administration or independent, significantly impacts faculty governance. The repeated police entries into university buildings, including the Faculty of Medicine, Philosophy, and the Rectorate, are seen as an alarming overreach of executive power into academic affairs, a sentiment echoed by the students who see it as a threat to their hard-won autonomy.

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You see that this government, like a cancer, has spread its metastases into all pores and into something that should not have any contact with the executive power at all, and that is student parliaments.