Presidential Elections in the Republic of Serbia (Presidential Elections) are held every five years, which is the length of one presidential term of office according to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia. In addition to regularly scheduled presidential elections, early elections can be called as well when the President of the Republic is prevented from performing his/her duties or his/her term of office ends before the expiry of the period of time for which he/she has been elected.
The term of office of the President of the Republic shall terminate before the expiry of the period of time for which he/she has been elected, in case of his/her resignation or with the adoption of the decision of the National Assembly on his/her relief of duty.
Elections for the President of the Republic are called by the Speaker of the National Assembly.
Presidential Elections are called by the Speaker of the National Assembly 90 days before the end of the term of office of the ongoing President, so that elections are completed within the following 60 days.
The Speaker of the National Assembly shall call early Presidential elections so that they are held not later than three months from the occurrence of indisposition of the President of the Republic, that is, termination of his/her term of office prior to the expiry for which he/she has been elected.
From the day of calling the elections until the polling day no less than 30 and may elapse.
A non-working day, Saturday of Sunday has to be determined as the day of elections.
The elections are conducted by the Republic Electoral Commission, with a four-year term of office, and polling boards, which are set up for each elections.
The right to vote for the President of the Republic and stand for election as the President of the Republic shall have every person of legal age and with legal capacity holding the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia.
The exercise of the right to vote is absolutely free. Which means that every voter has he right to decide freely whether he/she will vote in the elections. Therefore, no one has the right to prevent or force another person to vote, to hold a voter to account for voting or to demand a voter to declare for whom he/she has voted for or why he/she has not voted.
A candidate for the President of the Republic may be nominated by a political party registered prior to the day the decision on calling of elections was promulgated, by a coalition of political parties or by a group of citizens. A group of citizens is established by at least ten voters.
The nomination of a candidate shall be submitted to the Republic Electoral Commission not later than 20 days prior to the day of elections. With each electoral list, the submitter is obliged to submit other documents prescribed by law, as well as at least 10,000 statements certified by law, i.e. signatures of the voters supporting particular electoral list.
The ordinal number of each candidate on the list shall be determined by lot, at the meeting of the Republic Electoral Commission, in the presence of a representative of a candidate’s proposer.
Not later than five days prior to the day of elections, each voter shall receive a notification with the date and time of elections, the number and the address of a polling station and his/her registration number in the excerpt from the electoral register. The voter is not obliged to bring this notification to the polling station and he/she may not be denied the voting right only because he/she does not have this notification on him/her.
On the election day, polling stations are opened at 7:00 a.m. and closed at 8:00 p.m. A polling station must be constantly open during these hours.
The voting takes place at polling stations in the Republic of Serbia and polling stations abroad (as a rule, in diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Serbia) determined by theRepublic Electoral Commission. The voter votes in the country in accordance with its registered place of domicile, and has the possibility to vote at the place of his/her temporary residence instead of his place of domicile, but is obliged thereof to inform the municipality of the place of his residence not later than five days before the day of the elections.
Voting is performed by circling the ordinal number in front of the name of a chosen candidate. A voter may vote for only one candidate on the ballot.
The candidate who receives the majority of votes cast by the voters that voted shall be elected President of the Republic. While in Parliamentary Elections, the number of voters who voted is determined according to the excerpt from the electoral register, in Presidential Elections, the number of voters who voted is determined according to the number of ballot papers found in a ballot box.
If none of the candidates receives the majority of votes of the voters who voted, the ballot shall be repeated within 15 days of the first ballot (second round of elections).
The day of the second round of elections is determined by the Republic Electoral Commission, minding that the elections fall on a non-working day.
The two candidates who received the largest number of votes cast in the first ballot shall compete in the second round of elections, and the candidate who receives the largest number of votes cast shall be the first in order on the ballot paper in the repeated ballot.
More than two candidates shall participate in the repeated ballot if there are more candidates who share the first or the second place.
The candidate who receives the majority of votes cast by the voters who voted shall be elected President of the Republic.
If the candidates receive equal number of votes in the repeated ballot, the vote shall be repeated within 15 days.
The Republic Electoral Commission publishes the results of the elections within 96 hours from the moment the voting has been completed in the polling stations. The results of the election are published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia.
The term of office of the President starts on the day of taking an oath before the National Assembly.
Protection of voting rights is provided during the course of the whole election process.
Every voter, candidate and submitter of electoral list has the right to file an appeal with the Republic Electoral Commission on grounds of infringement of electoral rights during the elections, or on grounds of irregularities in the candidacy procedure or voting procedure, within 24 hours of the making of the decision or of the execution of the act which the plaintiff deems irregular, or the moment when the omission was made.
The Republic Electoral Commission shall make a ruling within 48 hours of the moment of receipt of the appeal.
An appeal may be filed with the Administrative Court against any decision of the Republic Electoral Commission which shall make a decision on the appeal within 48 hours of the receipt of the appeal.