Serbia Head out to Vote for New President

Voters of Serbia are casting ballots in the presidential election on Sunday to choose a successor to their departing one-term President, Tomislav Nikolic.

Polling stations are open from 7 am to 8 pm CET (GMT+2), and the preliminary results are expected to be published by the State Election Commission, RIK, a few hours after polls close.

Eleven men are competing to become Serbia's head of state: Prime Minister and the ruling Serbian Progressive Party's candidate, Aleksandar Vucic, former Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic; former foreign minister and former President of the UN General Assembly Vuk Jeremic; the spoof character Ljubisa Preletacevic "Beli"; the leader of the "Enough is Enough" movement, Sasa Radulovic; the politician Milan Stamatovic; Nenad Canak, from the League of Vojvodina Social Democrats; rightwingers Miroslav Parovic, Bosko Obradovic and Aleksandar Popovic; and the leader of ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj.

The number of people entitled to vote is 6,724,949. Voters may cast ballots at 8,523 polling stations.

According to Ispos Strategic Marketing between 56.2 and 60.4 of electoral is expected to vote on Sunday's presidential elections.

Voting will also take place at 90 polling stations in Kosovo and at 53 polling stations in 23 other foreign countries.

If no candidate wins 50 per cent of the votes, plus one, there will be a second round in which the top two candidates will go face to face.

About 1,955 local and 126 foreign observers will be monitoring Serbian presidential elections, including local organizations the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, CRTA, Citizens on Watch association, the Center for Free Elections and Democracy, CeSID, and the Lawyers' Committee for...