BELGRADE, April 2. /TASS/. Serbia’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic is winning presidential elections in the first round of voting, with 59.89% of the vote, chairman of Serbia’s Electoral Commission Vladimir Dimitrijevic said on Sunday.
"According to the result of counting 16.84% of ballot papers, candidate Aleksandar Vucic has scored 203,892 votes, or 59.89%," he said.
According to the Republican Electoral Commission, former ombudsman Sasa Jankovich is second with 13.2% of the vote. He is followed by comedian and political activist Luka Maksimovic with 8.37%, former Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic with 5.21%, and leader of the Serbian radical party Vojislav Seselj with 4.36%
The voter turnout, according to Vucic’s election headquarters, was 55.5%Vasily Likhachev, a member of the Russian Election Commission who leads the delegation of Russian observers, told TASS earlier Russian observers had registered no violations at the elections in Serbia.
The Serbian president is elected for a five-year term and cannot hold the office more than twice. The head of state represents the country in the international affairs, nominates a prime minister who is to be approved by the parliament. The president also signs laws or vetoes them, appoints ambassadors, issues pardons and awards, and is the country’s supreme commander-in-chief.