President of Croatia

Newly-elected Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic urged the UN secretary-general to push for Serbian nationalist war crimes suspect Vojislav Seselj to be returned to custody in The Hague.

Croatia's cenre-left Prime Minister, Zoran Milanovic, belatedly congratulated the newly elected Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic - after a fashion - on Thursday.

"We want to once more express our gratitude to the former President, Ivo Josipovic, who in our opinion served with honour and as a role model as Croatian President," he said.

Grabar Kitarovic, the victorious candidate of the opposition centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, went to share her unexpected triumph in the early hours of Monday morning with the protesting disabled veterans from the 1990s conflict at the tent they have set up in front of the war veterans' ministry.

The 37,203 registered Croatian voters living outside the country - often referred to as Diaspora - played a key role in deciding the winner of the Croatian presidential elections.

"Dissatisfied Croats" elect first woman president

The victory of Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in the Croatian presidential election was a reflection of the dissatisfaction of Croatian citizens, the media say.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has won in the second round of elections that were held in Croatia on Sunday, becoming the country's first female president.

Grabar-Kitarovic, who is from the oppositional Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), won against incumbent Ivo Josipovic with the narrowest of margins, the BBC reports.

ZAGREB - We will support Serbia on its EU path, but it needs to fulfil all the conditions Croatia fulfilled in the process, Croatian President and presidential candidate Ivo Josipovic said on Sunday.

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.

Croatian presidential candidate on conditions for Serbia

ZAGREB -- A Croatian presidential candidate has said that she would condition Serbia's EU membership path "with the return of the missing persons from the (1990s) war."

Political pundits and pollsters are puzzling over the unexpectedly narrow lead taken by Ivo Josipovic in the first round of the Croatian presidential elections on December 28.

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