Serbian President and
Democratic party leader Boris Tadic (L) speaks to the media outside
a polling station in Belgrade February 3, 2008. Tadic won 50.5
percent or some 2.28 million votes in the tightly-contested
presidential run-off on Sunday, defeating his rival Tomislav
Nikolic. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Serbia's incumbent President Boris Tadic won 50.5 percent or
some 2.28 million votes in the tightly-contested presidential
run-off on Sunday, defeating his rival Tomislav Nikolic, said
preliminary results.
Nikolic of the Serbian Radical Party gained 47.9 percent or 2.18
million votes in the run-off, said the Center for Free and
Democratic Elections (CeSID), a local leading pollster.
Tadic of the Democratic Party told a press conference that it
was a common victory and congratulated all the citizens of Serbia
who "have showed that Serbia is a great European democracy."
Serbian President and
Democratic party leader Boris Tadic casts his vote in Belgrade
February 3, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
He congratulated his contestant Nikolic on "a very difficult and
fair fight."
Meanwhile, Nikolic acknowledged electoral defeat and
congratulated Tadic.
He said at a press conference that Tadic, in all likelihood, has
won in the second round and that the difference between the two was
around 2 percentages.
Jubilant Tadic supporters poured onto the streets in downtown
Belgrade, sounding car horns and waving blue and yellow Democratic
Party flags as they drove around the downtown area. Thousands
gathered in the main Republic Square, where Tadic held his final
election rally, while others converged on the party's
headquarters.?
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(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2008)
