Serbia: Presidential election 2008 (results)

22:35 Nikolic acknowledged electoral defeat and congratulated Tadic.

22:31TADIC51.6%, NIKOLIC 47.18% (according to Republican Election Commission on the basis of 56.87% of the votes counted).

22:16 TADIC 50.5%, NIKOLIC 47.9%, TURNOUT 67.6% (According to the first preliminary data of the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) ).

22:03 CeSID programme director Marko Blagojevic said that, on the basis of the processed electoral sample, it can be assessed that voters in Serbia have entrusted Boris Tadic with another mandate.

21:53 (19.53) NIKOLIC 49.45 % TADIC 48.75% (11.01% of the ballots counted)

21:39 Tadić 48,8, Nikolić 49,32

21:29 Tadić 50,5 Nikolić 47,9

Upadate: 03, feb 20:26 (18:26GMT) - Polls closed at 20.00 (18:00 GMT). According to the latest information 63% of the electorate voted (approx. 4.5 million people).

Upadate: 03, feb, 19:46 (17.46 GMT)- By 18.00 57.80% of of the electorate has voted , said Republic Election Commission deputy president Dejan Djurdjevic.

Upadate: 03, feb. 16.07GMT - According to the preliminary figures of the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID), around 51% of the electorate went to the polls by 1700 hours (1500GMT), which is around 3% more than at the same time in the first round.

Upadate: 03, feb. 2.54GMT. (From Tanjug): The second round of the presidential election in Serbia opened Sunday at 7 a.m. Voters in Serbia will choose beteween Tomislav Nikolic, deputy president of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and Boris Tadic, leader of the Democratic Party (DS), whose names are listed in that order on voting slips. The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) determined that there are a total of 6,723,762 registered voters in Serbia, about 15,000 more than in the first round, and 8481 polling stations. The turnout of the voters in the second round of the presidential election in Serbia by noon Sunday was 22.4%, about 1% more than in the first round at the same time, the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) told Tanjug. About five percent of the voters go to the polls every hour, CeSID said.

updated: 2/2/08: the latest opinion polls for the second round, show Tadić ahead of Nikolić by a 2% margin. I don't trust the accuracy of the polls in predicting election results, so I will not be surprised if the final result is the other way around.
In the meantime, the TV debate of the two candidates on Wednesday had a record audience for an information political programme since ratings began in 2002. It registered 30% higher ratings than the debate of the same candidates ahead of the presidential elections in 2004 (2,200,000 viewers). On Wednesday evening the ratings share was 60%. (3,100,000) viewers.

21/1/08. According to the official Serbian news agency Tanjug's latest results (6.15am), Tomislav Nikolić of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) gets 39,57%, Boris Tadić of the Democratic Party (DS) 35,45% , Srbije Velimir Ilić of New Serbia (NS) 7,45%, Milutin Mrkonjic of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) 5.96% and Čedomir Jovanović of the Liberal Demoratic Party (LDP) 5,39% .
(The agency site in English has not been updated since yesterday evening).
I will try to post the final result on February 3.