Preliminary results published Monday showed that Aleksandar Vucic, the incumbent prime minister of Serbia, won 55.1 percent of votes during the Serbian presidential elections, the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) announced on Monday.

RIK president Vladimir Dimitrijevic said that based on 91.3 percent of votes counted so far, RIK estimated that around 3.35 million voters or 54.6 percent of the total 6.7 million registered voters came out to vote and elect a new head of state.

According to the early results, Sasa Jankovic, the former ombudsman was ranked second with 16 percent of votes, third was the comedian and political activist Luka Maksimovic with 9.4 percent, while the fourth out of 11 candidates was former foreign minister Vuk Jeremic who won 5.6 percent of votes.

RIK estimated that Vucic garnered around 1.85 million votes, while the second-ranked Jankovic won 550,000.

Dimitrijevic said that polling boxes containing ballots were still arriving from some 700 out of 8,400 polling stations, and that counting was still in progress.

Presidential elections in Serbia were held on Sunday. In the evening, after RIK announced the preliminary results, Vucic declared a victory at his headquarters, explaining that the government with a new prime minister would be formed in the next two months, during which he would continue to perform the duties of the prime minister.

The deadline for RIK to announce the final results of the presidential elections is April 6.

source: Xinhua