Croats were voting for a new president yesterday, with an opposition candidate who pledges to back the European Union candidate country's anti-corruption drive seen as favourite to win most votes in the first round.
The candidate for the opposition Social Democrats seemed poised to win the most votes in the first round of Croatia's presidential election yesterday, but not enough for an outright victory, exit polls showed.
Ivo Josipovic, a law professor and composer, captured 32.7 per cent of votes, according to exit polls on Nova TV, on a sample of 10,000 voters.
He is likely to compete with his former party colleague, Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic, who mustered 14.1 per cent of votes as an independent candidate and will probably get most votes from some 400,000 Croats in neighbouring Bosnia.
Both men have pledged to back Croatia's bid for European Union membership, which it hopes to achieve in 2012.
Mr Bandic, the powerful, populist mayor of Zagreb, was recently expelled from the Social Democrats. Mr Josipovic, a newcomer with no blemishes in his career but seen as lacking charisma, ran on an anti-corruption ticket under the slogan "Justice for All".
Any second round will take place on January 10.
Other contestants who could make it to the second round are Andrija Hebrang of the ruling conservative HDZ party and Nadan Vidosevic, a wealthy businessman and former HDZ member.
The President has a say in foreign policy, security and defence, but no power to veto legislation. Diplomats hope the winner will back the government's renewed efforts to fight corruption and enforce reforms needed to complete EU entry talks in 2010.
The victor will replace veteran reformer Stjepan Mesic, whose second five-year term expires in February, and inherit a country deeply hit by the economic crisis, with unemployment and poverty likely to rise further next year.
The election comes at a time when Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's Cabinet has stepped up efforts to fight corruption, with several high-level investigations in state companies under way.
"I expect to cooperate well with a new president... on the tasks which we have in common," Ms Kosor told reporters.
The HDZ has been in power almost the entire period since independence in 1991. The Social Democrats ruled only from 2000 to 2003, when they started reforms and set the country on course towards Nato and EU membership.
The HDZ's rating sank after former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, the country's dominant political figure, unexpectedly quit in July without giving reasons.
Economic woes and corruption further pushed voters towards opposition candidates despite the new prime minister's relatively positive image, analysts say.