28 Dec, 2009, Croatia, Europe

After all the votes were counted from Sunday’s vote, the Electoral Commission said that the Social Democrat candidate has won 32.4 per cent of the vote and Mayor Bandic won approx.14.8 per cent. Since neither garnered 50 per cent support the required for outright victory, they will now face each other in Jan run off.

Mr. Bandic has edged out Andrija Hebrang of governing Croatian Democratic Union who polled just over 12 per cent. The failure of ruling the conservative party member to get to run off appeared indicating indicate the country’s growing dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of economic decline and allegations of the high-level corruption.

All the three candidates were largely counting for boost to their prospects on the Croat voters living in abroad, mostly in the neighboring Bosnia. Around 4.4 million people including more than 400,000 living abroad were eligible to vote in the Sunday’s election to choose the president to steer the Balkans country into the European Union.

The incumbent president, the popular centrist Stipe Mesic, stands down in February after serving the maximum of two five-year terms.

He is credited with helping to transform the former Yugoslav republic from a nationalist autocracy, the legacy of the late strongman Franjo Tudjman into a parliamentary democracy, curbing the president’s powers.