Croatians are voting to elect a new president this Sunday in a race that has current president Zoran Milanovic leading in the polls.
Around 3.8 million Croatians can vote for one of eight candidates, three of whom are women, spanning the left to right of the political spectrum. The office of president is largely ceremonial in Croatia.
Polling stations close at 6pm Greenwich Mean Time (3pm Brasília time) and exit polls are expected minutes later. The preliminary results will be known around 7pm (4pm in Brasília).
Milanovic, a candidate for the opposition Socialist Democrats, is running for a second term. His main opponent is Dragan Primorac, a former Science Minister supported by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party.
Milanovic led opinion polls before and after the election campaign. The latest poll published on Friday by Nova TV Daily News showed Milanovic with 37.2% support against 20.4% for Primorac.
Next in line are two women — independent candidate Marija Selak Raspudic and Ivana Kekin of the left-wing green party We Can! (Mozemo) — which received around 10% support each.
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During his five-year term, which expires on February 18, Milanovic, a former prime minister, clashed with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic over public and foreign policy, and fiercely criticized the European Union and NATO for its support for Ukraine.
The president cannot veto laws, but has an active voice in foreign policy, defense and security issues.
Despite his populist rhetoric, Milanovic is seen by many as the only counterweight to the ruling HDZ government, which has seen 30 ministers forced from their posts in recent years amid allegations of corrupt practices.
