Presidential polls

Voting in presidential elections began on Sunday across Croatia, with 12 candidates vying for the job of helping the former Yugoslav nation over the last hurdles to European Union membership.

The most recent polls indicate that even Social Democrat Ivo Josipovic, who has a clear edge over the other candidates, will not be able to secure the 50 percent of votes needed to for an outright victory. Josipovic will likely face either Milan Bandic, the mayor of Zagreb who was recently expelled from the Social Democrats, or Nadan Vidosevic, a businessman and former member of the ruling party, the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), in a January 10 runoff.

Law professor and composer Josipovic has an untarnished political career but is seen as lacking charisma. He has pledged to support Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's recent drive to fight corruption in the country. However, while the Croatian president has a limited say in foreign policy, security and defense, the post is largely ceremonial with no power to veto legislation.

The issues dominating the elections are the country's widespread corruption and its recovery from the the global economic crisis.

All of the leading candidates back entry into the EU, which is now set for 2012. A border disagreement with EU member Slovenia that had temporarily derailed membership talks has now been resolved.

While the HDZ has been in power almost the entire time since Croatia gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, surveys suggest that the party's candidate, former health minister Andrija Hebrang, will not make it through to a second round of voting. Incumbent president, popular centrist Stjepan Mesic, must step down after serving the maximum two five-year terms.

There are roughly 4.5 million registered Croatian voters, including some 400,000 who live outside the country, mostly in neighboring Bosnia.

hf/AFP/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Andreas Illmer