RIK: Nikolić won 49.51, Tadić 47.35 percent

BELGRADE -- The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) stated on Monday that Tomislav Nikolić won 49.51 and Boris Tadić won 47.35 percent of the vote.

(Beta)

This is according to preliminary results from 99.07 polling stations that have been processed so far.

46.32 voters cast their ballots in the second round of the presidential election, or 3,120,379 out of 6,736,028 eligible voters.

1,544,259 citizens voted for Nikolić and 1,476,868 for Tadić.

According to RIK, there were 3.15 percent of invalid ballots or 98,215.

RIK Spokesman Miodrag Petrović told Beta news agency that ballots from 90 polling stations in Kosovo, which were transferred to the southern Serbian towns of Raška and Vranje, should be delivered to RIK after 18:00 CET on Monday.

RIK will announce the final results of the presidential run-off 96 hours after the closing of the polls, on May 19 at 20:00 at the latest.

According to the Center for Free Elections (CeSID) final estimate of the presidential run-off results, Nikolić won 49.8 and Boris Tadić 47 percent.

The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) stated last night that Nikolić won 49.76 percent of the vote, while Tadić won 47.15 percent.

CeSID Program Director Marko Blagojević told a press conference that a total voter turnout had been 46.3 percent, which is less than in any elections since 2004.

According to preliminary results, Nikolić won 48.9 percent of the votes in Belgrade, while Tadić won 47.4 percent.

As far as central Serbia is concerned, Nikolić won 53.2 percent and Tadić 44 percent.

Tadić won more votes only in Vojvodina – 52.2 percent, while Nikolić got 44.2 percent of the vote.

Blagojević explained that the results from Kosovo could not affect the election result.

He also pointed out that the number of spoiled votes was 3.2 percent and that the usual number had so far been 2.5 percent.