Presidential elections were held in Serbia on 6 May 2012 alongside parliamentary elections. The elections were called following President Boris Tadić's early resignation in order to coincide with the parliamentary and local elections to be held on the same date. The Speaker of the Parliament, Slavica Đukić Dejanović, took over as the Acting President. As no candidate won a majority, a runoff was on 20 May, with incumbent Tadić facing Tomislav Nikolić of the Serbian Progressive Party.
According to preliminary results published by CeSID, Ipsos and RIK, Tomislav Nikolić had beaten his opponent Boris Tadić to become President of Serbia. Official results confirmed this, putting Nikolić at 51% against Tadić's 49%.
Candidates
Despite being elected president of Serbia in 2004 and 2008, Boris Tadić was allowed to run for president for a third time, despite the 2 term constitutional limit, as the Constitutional Law for the Implementation of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia from 2006 declared that the 2008 election would be considered the first election, following the break-up of Serbia and Montenegro.
First round of the elections was held on 6 May. Republic Electoral Commission has confirmed twelve candidates. Candidate numbers were decided using a random draw on 20 April.
Campaign
Both the SNS and the DS supported Serbia's candidature for the EU, with the SNS' Nikolić having sharply contrasted his stance in the past few years. A few hours before the voting centres opened, Tadić told Croatian television that "anything else [than a Democratic Party victory] would be a big risk and a big gamble for Serbia's European integration [and] for regional politics."
Shortly after the first round, a preliminary coalition agreement between the DS and the SPS was reached, which meant that the SPS would also endorse Tadić in the run-off. The DSS officially supported Nikolić in the run-off.
Monitors
The Center for Free Elections and Democracy were amongst the electoral observers.
Results
About 6.7 million people were eligible to vote for the 12 candidates. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe will undertake the organization of voting for the roughly 109,000 Serb voters in Kosovo. These results include the districts of Kosovo-Metohija autonomous province, which at the same time has elections independent of the Serbian nation. Voting stations were open from 7:00 to 20:00 with no incidents reported across the country. Voter turnout by 18:00 was 46.34% in Belgrade, 48.37% in central Serbia and 47.89% in Vojvodina. The first round resulted in no clear victory for any candidate. With 25% of ballots counted, Boris Tadić was leading with 26.7% over Tomislav Nikolić who had 25.5% of the vote.
In the second round Nikolić received 51% of the vote to 49% for Tadić. The results were a surprise, as stated by Russian media, based on previous polls. "This was an electoral earthquake, a totally unexpected result," political analyst Slobodan Antonić said on Serbia's RTS state television.