Croats vote in presidential run-off poll

Sun, 10 Jan 2010

Zagreb - Croats began casting ballots Sunday in a presidential run-off poll pitting the opposition Social Democratic Party's Ivo Josipovic against the independent Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic. Last-minute opinion polls predicted an easy win for Josipovic, giving him between 56-69 per cent support. His rival has just 31-40 per cent.

Josipovic, 52, won the first-round vote two weeks ago, collecting more than 30 per cent and twice as many votes as Bandic, 54. However, he did not gain the necessary threshold of 50 per cent of the votes to win outright without a run-off.

The December 27 vote was marked by voter apathy, with only 44 per cent of the 4.5 million voters casting ballots.

Ruling Croatian Democratic Union's candidate, Andrija Hebrang, received a humiliating 12-per cent in the first round.

Josipovic, who is seen as a safe pair of hands but a dull and dry politician, and Bandic, colorful but perceived by many as corrupt and inadequately-educated, did little to stir interest for the elections.

The Social-Democrat Josipovic promises to wage war on the booming corruption and fight for a "new justice."

Bandic, thrown out of the SPD for deciding to run against Josipovic, fought on an array of populist slogans addressing all ends of the political spectrum, though mostly playing on the nationalist sentiment.

The polling stations will close at 1900 (1800 GMT) and first official results are due a few hours later.

Croatian election results are often delayed because 400,000 of the registered voters live abroad, mostly in the neighboring Bosnia, and the counting of those ballots takes additional time.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/302912,croats-vote-in-presidential-run-off-poll.html.