Croatians began voting in their fourth general election in 12 years of independence today with polls showing a tight race between opposition nationalists and the incumbent centre-left coalition.
Some 4.3 million people were entitled to cast ballots at 6,974 polling stations from the Adriatic coast to the plain bordering Serbia, and abroad. Voting ends at 1800 GMT.
Prime Minister Ivica Racan, a Social Democrat, is seeking a fresh four-year mandate for his coalition against a strong challenge from the revamped Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), who say his economic reforms have caused too much pain.
All main parties advocate membership of the European Union and NATO.
Croatia's fourth general election since independence in 1991 may be the closest yet as the last opinion poll before voting opened showed the opposition, led by the HDZ, may capture half the 140 fixed seats in parliament.
But it was unclear how a separate bloc of up to 20 seats set aside for minorities and the diaspora might go.
The HDZ is the party of the late President Franjo Tudjman who took Croatia out of the Yugoslav federation intact despite four years of intermittent war with Serbs. It lost power in January 2000 to pragmatic leftists promising Western prosperity.
HDZ leader Mr Ivo Sanader is banking on voters' discontent with the pain of economic reforms pursued over the past four years in the name of joining the wealthy European Union. At the same time, he stresses Croatia has no alternative to that goal.
Some 3.9 million people in Croatia and some 400,000 Croats living abroad are entitled to vote. Early results are due within a few hours after polls close.