ZAGREB - President Franjo Tudjman (75) has won a mandate to rule Croatia for another five years with the support of just 36 per cent of the electorate.
At only 57 per cent, the turnout in Sunday's election was one of the lowest since 1990 when Croatia, then a republic of former Yugoslavia, broke with its communist past to organise the first democratic and free election in half a century.
The president won his second full term in office, fortifying his iron grip on power following the victory of his ruling HDZ party in the 1995 parliamentary election and its landslide in April's municipal poll.