Maja Gojkovic, speaker of the Serbian parliament, announced in Thursday's session that the presidential elections in Serbia would take place on April 2.

Gojkovic thus fulfilled the legal obligation to announce the date of the elections 90 days before the mandate of incumbent President Tomislav Nikolic ends.

The ruling Progressive Party decided to run with a new presidential candidate -- Aleksandar Vucic, the current prime minister and the party's president.

The Socialist Party and other coalition partners of the Progressive Party decided to back Vucic's candidature, so that the ruling coalition would have one joint candidate.

On the other hand, there are several candidates of the opposition -- Vojislav Seselj, leader of the far-right Radical Party, Bosko Obradovic, leader of the movement Dveri, and independent candidates -- former state ombudsman Sasa Jankovic and former foreign minister Vuk Jeremic.

Gojkovic said in her speech in parliament that she advised citizens to elect a candidate who would "seriously and responsibly cooperate with the government and participate in a joint struggle to maintain political and economic stability of the country."

According to the latest information from Ipsos, a market research company, published two days ago, around 52 percent of voters will give their support to Vucic which would enable him to secure a victory in the first round of the elections.

According to the same research, Jankovic and Jeremic would each have around 13 percent of votes.

Source: Xinhua