Drago Prgomet

Croatia's local elections on Sunday confirmed the strength of the governing centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, in the counties, but underlined its lack of strength in the major cities of Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek.

The HDZ won in 11 out of Croatia's 20 counties, while its traditional opponent, the opposition Social Democratic Party, SDP, managed to win in only five.

Some 3.7 million Croatian voters will be heading to the polls on Sunday for the local elections, choosing representatives for neighbourhood, city, municipality and county assemblies, as well as directly electing mayors, municipal heads, and county prefects.

Croatia's ruling party, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, fears its plans for the local elections in Zagreb could be upset after a far-right researcher, Bruna Esih, said she was running for Mayor.

Esih, aged 41, who entered parliament on the HDZ list as a non-party candidate in the last elections, already has the HDZ worried.

Talks on forming a potential new government in Croatia have yet to bear fruit after parliamentary elections on November 8 finished without a clear winner.

The governing centre-left coalition, led by the Social Democratic Party, SDP won 56 seats, while the opposition centre-right coalition, led by Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, won 59. There are 151 seats in total.

After winning 19 seats in the parliamentary elections and becoming the country's new political powerbroker, MOST said that if either of Croatia's main blocs wants its support to form a government, it must first agree to adopt a list of reforms.

The latest polls in Croatia suggest that a political newcomer, the Bridge of Independent Lists, MOST, could become the third political force in the country after the next election and so play a role in forming the next government.