Croats are voting to elect a new president on Sunday in a race that incumbent President Zoran Milanovic is leading in the polls.
Around 3.8 million Croats are eligible to cast votes for one of eight candidates, three of whom are women, ranging from the left to the right of the political spectrum. The post of president is mostly ceremonial.
Polling stations close at 1800 GMT and exit polls are expected minutes later. Preliminary results will be known around 1900 GMT.
Milanovic, the opposition Socialist Democrats’ candidate, is running for a second term. His main challenger is Dragan Primorac, a former science minister backed by the governing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
Milanovic has led in 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 Primorac with 20.4%.
The next in line are two women – independent candidate Marija Selak Raspudic and Ivana Kekin of the We Can! (Mozemo) leftist-green political party – who garnered about 10% support each.
“Today the citizens of Croatia are deciding about their future, the future of our homeland,” Primorac said after casting his ballot in Zagreb. “Each vote is immeasurably important.”
The election will go to a second round on Jan. 12 if none of the candidates wins a majority.
“I call on our people to get out and vote, to support me,” Milanovic said after voting.
During his five-year term which expires on Feb. 18, Milanovic, a former prime minister, has clashed with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic over foreign and public policies, and has fiercely criticised the European Union and NATO over their support for Ukraine.
The president cannot veto laws, but has a say in foreign policy, defence and security matters.
Despite his populist rhetoric, Milanovic is seen by many as the only counterbalance to the HDZ-dominant government, which has seen 30 ministers forced to leave in recent years amidst allegations of corrupt practices.
“I will vote for the same one for whom I voted before, and he will hopefully continue,” an elderly man, who only gave his first name Filip, said while heading to the polling station.
