SKOPJE, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Stevo Pendarovski, the president-elect of North Macedonia, received here on Saturday from the State Election Commission (SEC) a certificate verifying his victory in the presidential election runoff held on May 5.
Handing over the certificate, Oliver Derkovski, the head of the SEC, congratulated Pendarovski on his victory and wished him success in the performance of his mandate.
"Stevo Pendarovski is elected North Macedonia's President and has won the majority of the citizens' votes," Derkovski said.
Upon receiving the certificate, Pendarovski said that the presidential elections proved that North Macedonia can behave in a European manner and the institutions can work professionally.
"For the first time since 1990s all participants in the voting process recognized the election result and this is an extremely good recommendation for North Macedonia ahead of the June European Union summit," Pendarovski said to reporters.
The president-elect also declared that he would thoroughly engage in the reform of the security services, whose abuses were the main reasons for the country's deep political crisis in 2015.
Earlier Saturday, the SEC announced the final results of May 5 presidential election runoff, where out of over 1.8 million registered voters, the turnout was 46.65 percent. Pendarovski won with 435,656 votes against his rival Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, who received 377,446 votes.
The inauguration ceremony for Pendarovski as the new president of North Macedonia will be held on Sunday, the press office of the Parliament announced.
