Given the winner in the first round in an exit poll, outgoing President Zoran Milanovic finally finds himself in the second round of the presidential election alongside his conservative rival Dragan Primorac, according to the official results announced this Sunday, December 29 by the Electoral Commission .
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The outgoing Croatian president, Zoran Milanovic, narrowly missed winning the presidential election in the first round on Sunday and will have to face, in two weeks, the candidate of the conservatives in power, Dragan Primorac, announced Sunday December 29 the Electoral Commission.
To everyone’s surprise, an exit poll gave the outgoing president the winner in the first round. Zoran Milanovic, whose candidacy was supported by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), came well ahead of the first round of voting with 49.20% of the votes, ahead of Dragan Primorac, the choice of 19.43% of voters, according to official results based on counting ballots in nearly 99% of polling stations.
The survey following the polls, carried out by the Ipsos institute, credited Zoran Milanovic with 51.48% of the votes, against 19.29% for his opponent.
The outgoing president’s score is nevertheless a surprise, because all the polls, even if they gave him the favorite in this election, predicted the second round. The last one, dating from Friday, credited him with 37% of voting intentions in the first round.
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Setback for the current Prime Minister
According to initial comments, this is a significant setback inflicted on Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), of which Zoran Milanovic is a fierce critic. Since Croatia proclaimed its independence in 1991, only Franjo Tudjman, considered the father of independence, has managed to win the presidential election in the first round, twice, in 1992 and 1997.
The Croats voted on Sunday in significantly fewer numbers than in the legislative elections in April. Participation, based on the same number of ballots counted, was 46%, compared to 62% in the legislative elections. More than 51% of voters voted in the first round of the presidential election in 2019.
This low turnout can be explained by the date of the poll, between Christmas and New Year, when many people are on vacation.
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