ZAGREB – A 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.
– (Reuters)