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Croatia heads to the polls

January 11, 2015

Croatians are voting to elect a new president in a run-off election. A liberal incumbent faces a tough challenge from a conservative rival as the European Union’s newest member battles economic woes.

https://p.dw.com/p/1EIZN
Presidential candidate of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic casts her ballot at a polling station in Zagreb, Croatia, 11 January 2015 EPA/STR
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Str

Sunday's vote is seen as a major test for Croatia's center-left government, which faces parliamentary elections later this year.

A conservative win could see the country shift back to right-wing nationalism.

Turnout on Sunday was 21.92 percent at 1030 UTC, the electoral commission said.

In the first round of voting two weeks ago, current President Ivo Josipovic won 38.5 percent of the vote, edging out Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic (pictured C. above) on 37.2 percent. Sunday's run-off was necessary as neither candidate secured the 50 percent needed to win outright.

The incumbent, the third president of the former Yugoslav republic since independence in 1991, is a member of the Social Democrats (SDP), the main force in the ruling coalition.

His rival, from the main opposition Croation Democratic Union (HDZ) party, is vying to become the country's first female president.

Presidential powers are limited in Croatia. However, Sunday's vote is seen a key test for parliamentary elections later in the year.

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's government is hugely unpopular after failing to stimulate the country's economy, which has been in recession for the past six years.

"The recession ... is not only the consequence of the global crisis in 2008. Problems are rather structural and the authorities have not been solving them," economic analyst Damir Novotny told AFP.

In 2013, Croatia became a member of the European Union, but its economy remains the bloc's weakest.

jlw/tj (AFP, AP)