Candidates can be nominated by political parties, MPs or voters and have until 17 October to file their nominations with the National Electoral Commission (DVK). Those candidates who are backed by a political party have to get signatures from at least three MPs or 3,000 voters.

Candidates who decide to run with the backing of MPs must persuade ten deputies, while independents have to get the support of at least 5,000 voters.

Among the nine hopefuls who announced their bid, seven will be running with the support of voters, including incumbent President Danilo Türk, controversial former Slovenian army Major Ladislav Troha and Monika Malešič, who stood for a seat in parliament in the 2011 general election for the coalition People's Party (SLS), which however distanced itself from her bid.

Apart from them, Miro Žitko, Fani Eršte, Dušan Egidij Kubot - Totislo and Artur Štern will also be collecting voter signatures.

Former Prime Minister Borut Pahor, who is running with the backing of the Social Democrats (SD), also announced that he would support his nomination with the signatures of at least 3,000 voters.

Meanwhile, the ruling Democrats (SDS) have not yet said whether MEP Milan Zver, who is backed by the SDS and the junior coalition New Slovenia (NSi), would file his nomination with voter signatures or support of MPs.

After filing their bids with the DVK, the candidates will have until 22 October to withdraw their nomination, while the commission will publish the list of the official candidates by 26 October.

The candidates must also appoint organisers of their campaigns, who will have until 27 September to open a special campaign bank account, which must then be closed within four months. The organisers will also have to ensure that the campaign will abide by campaign legislation.

The official campaign is to start on 12 October and will run until 9 November when the media blackout before the election sets in. Under the legislation, the campaigns cannot be funded by budget funds or funds granted by companies in which the state has more than 25% stake.

What is more, campaign budgets are capped at EUR 0.25 per Slovenian voter in the first round of voting, while candidates that get into the run-off can raise additional EUR 0.15 per voter.

Campaign organisers of the candidates who receive at least 10% of votes in the election get refunded at EUR 0.12 per vote.

Parliamentary Speaker Gregor Virant called the first round of the presidential ballot for 11 November, while the run-off will most likely be held on 2 December, should none of the candidates win a majority in the first round.

The run-off is held between the two candidates who get the most votes in the first round.

Slovenia will hold its fifth presidential election since independence this autumn. The first race took place in 1992, when Milan Kučan, who served two consecutive five-year terms, won in the first round.

Kučan, who won in a landslide with 63.93%, followed the first success with a 55.57% first-round victory five years later.

The late Janez Drnovšek, who succeeded Kučan to become only the second president in over a decade of Slovenia's independence, was the first president to win the election in the run-off.

Drnovšek won the run-off against Barbara Brezigar, the then supreme state prosecutor, whom he beat with 56.52% of the vote.

In the 2007 presidential election, incumbent Türk also went through two rounds of voting, standing against veteran conservative politician Lojze Peterle in the run-off.

Türk came from behind in the first round to beat the prime minister of Slovenia's first government with 68% of the vote in the run-off.

In the first round, Peterle received 28.73% of the vote, while Türk just managed to get into the run-off with 24.47%, ahead of rival left-leaning candidate Mitja Gaspari, who got 24.09%.