Some 6,700 polling stations have opened this Sunday at 07:00 (06:00 GMT) in Croatia for 3.8 million voters to choose the head of state between the current president, Zoran Milanovic, supported by the center-left opposition, and Andrej Plenkovic, candidate of the conservative HDZ.
Milanovic, with 49% of the votes, and Primorac, with 19%, were the two with the most votes among the eight candidates who ran for the election. first round of these elections, two weeks ago.
The vote will end at 7:00 p.m. (18.00 GMT), when the first projections based on exit polls will be published. Half an hour later, the publication of the first unofficial and partial results from the Electoral Commission is expected.
Las latest polls from the private broadcaster Nova TV and the public television HTV, published on Friday before the day of reflection, indicate that Milanovic will achieve between 63 and 67% of the votes, while Primorac would get a maximum of 28%.
The evolution of the candidates
Milanovic, 58, was prime minister (2011-2015) and leader of the Social Democratic Party (2007-2016). During the last five years of his first presidential term he has veered from progressive positions to sovereign positions, Eurosceptic, nationalist and even pro-Russian.
Primorac, a 59-year-old professor without political charisma who between 2003 and 2009 was Minister of Science and Education, promises to strongly support the Euro-Atlantic policy of the conservative government, weighed down by a series of corruption scandals.
The presidential office, with a five-year term, in Croatia has, above all, protocol and representative character, but it also influences the country’s foreign policy along with the government and the command of the country’s armed forces.
