Croats Cast Ballots in Presidential Election

After a close race in the first round of Croatian presidential elections, voters today will decide whether their head of state for the next five years will be the centre-left incumbent, Ivo Josipovic, or the candidate of the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic. First results are expected some time this evening.

Josipovic won the first round On December 28 with 38.46 per cent, just ahead of Grabar Kitarovic on 37.22 per cent.

The narrowness of Josipovic's win was a major surprise, as most surveys had given him an advantage of between 5 and 8 per cent. Some analysts predicted his outright win in the first round.

The unpopularity of the governing centre-left parties supporting Josipovic has been blamed for his lower than expected showing. The party backing Grabar Kitarovic, the HDZ, by contrast, has seen something of a revival in the polls lately.

The campaign in the last two weeks included three TV debates in which the two candidates clashed directly.

A total of 3,794,293 people are eligible to vote. Although the turnout of 47.12 per cent in the first round was slightly higher than in first round of the 2009 presidential elections - 44 per cent - the actual number of voters was 185,000 less than in 2009 because of a revision of the electoral roll.