Bobi Hristov, journalist from the pro-Government Telma TV station which hosted the first presidential election debate, deleted a Twitter poll after the opposition candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova came well ahead of the Government candidate Stevo Pendarovski.

Hristov posted the poll asking his followers who won the debate, and was apparently hoping that the results would favor Pendarovski. But, Twitter users favored Siljanovska with 65 percent as opposed to Pendarovski’s 25 percent. Ethnic Albanian candidate Blerim Reka won 11 percent of the votes. In light of these results, Hristov decided to delete the poll. Twitter users called Hristov out for deleting the poll and asked him if he’s doing that due to pressure from Pendarovski’s SDSM party. Hristov replied that he did it not because of the unfavorable result but because of rules banning media outlets from publishing unlicensed polls – a rule that was never used to prevent something like a Twitter poll.

Siljanovska took the situation in stride, saying she’s sorry it was deleted before she could vote for Blerim Reka, who, according to her, deserved more than the 11 percent he got.