Nikolic, Tadic to enter Serbian presidential run-off

·Nikolic won 38.26 percent of the votes, followed by Tadic with 35.15 percent.
·Nikolic will face Tadic in a presidential run-off, first preliminary results showed on Sunday.
·Nikolic's and Tadic's camps said they were preparing for a Feb. 3 runoff.

    BELGRADE, Jan 20 (Xinhua) -- Tomislav Nikolic of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party was in lead on Sunday's Serbian presidential election, but he had to face the incumbent pro-Western Boris Tadic in a presidential run-off, first preliminary results showed on Sunday evening.

    Nikolic won 38.26 percent of the votes, followed by the candidate of the Democratic Party Tadic with 35.15 percent, said Dragan Vukmirovic, director of the Serbian Statistics Office, citing initial results.

Serbia's ultrnationalist Radical Party acting leader Tomislav Nikolic smiles before casting a ballot at the country's presidential elections in Belgrade, Jan. 20, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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    Nikolic's and Tadic's camps each issued similar results and said they were preparing for a Feb. 3 runoff.

    Vukmirovic said that the candidate of New Serbia party, Velimir Ilic was the distant third with 8.11 percent of the votes. Ilic was supported by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and his Democratic Party of Serbia.

Serbia's President Boris Tadic speaks and gestures after the preliminary results of the first-round presidential elections vote in Belgrade, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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    The polling stations in Serbia were closed at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT) after 13-hour voting.

    The country's electoral commission said in a statement on Sunday evening that 61.07 percent of 6.7 million registered voters had cast their ballots at the presidential election on Sunday, which represent data that had been obtained from the processed 29.2 percent of polling stations.

    The turnout is the highest seen in any Serbian elections, presidential or parliamentary, since the October 2000 election that ended the rule of former leader Slobodan Milosevic.

Serbia holds presidential election

    BELGRADE, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The first round of the presidential election kicked off Sunday in Serbia with nine candidates vying for the presidency.

    The main competition will be between the pro-Western incumbent President Boris Tadic and his main challenger Tomislav Nikolic, whose Radical Party supports the policies of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Serbia urges UNSC to reject Kosovo's unilateral independence

    UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Serbian President Boris Tadic Wednesday called on members of the UN Security Council to boycott the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence by ethnic Albanian leaders.

    Tadic said the related Security Council resolution guarantees the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, and called on the Council to prevent the encouragement and the adoption of a unilateral act on the independence of Kosovo.