Croatia's incumbent president and conservative rival to face run-off vote
Croatia's outspoken incumbent Zoran Milanovic will face his conservative rival Dragan Primorac in a run-off vote for the largely symbolic post of president after a vote on Sunday failed to give either candidate an outright victory.
Croatia's President Zoran Milanovic and his conservative rival Dragan Primorac will face off in an election run-off in two weeks' time after the incumbent narrowly missed out on outright victory on Sunday, official results showed.
Milanovic won 49.2 percent of the first round vote and Primorac, backed by the ruling conservative HDZ party, took 19.4 percent, according to results released by the state electoral commission from nearly 99 percent of the polling stations.
The election comes as the European Union and NATO member country of 3.8 million people struggles with biting inflation, widespread corruption and a labour shortage.
Although Milanovic was considered the strong favourite, surveys before the vote suggested that none of the candidates would garner more than the 50 percent needed to win outright and avoid a runoff in two weeks.
A win for Milanovic in the first round would have marked a serious blow to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic's HDZ.
Among the eight contenders, two women MPs – centre-right MP Marija Selak Raspudic and green-left Ivana Kekin – followed the two main rivals, the exit poll showed. They won around eight percent of the vote each.
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