Centre-left tops poll as Croatia heads for presidential run-off

Croatian centre-left candidate and strong backer of EU accession Ivo Josipovic has won a third of votes cast in the country's presidential election on Sunday (27 December), putting him in pole position ahead of a January run-off.

Mr Josipovic, the opposition Social Democrat leader, won 32.4 percent - the most votes out of the 12 candidates up for the post.

He topped the poll substantially ahead of his nearest rival, Milan Bandic, the mayor of Zagreb since 2000 and a former Social Democrat turned populist, on 14.8 percent, but still fell far short of the necessary 50 percent required to win without a second vote.

Seen by some as bland yet untarnished by corruption, Mr Josipovic, a lawyer by trade, wants to lead the Balkan nation into the European Union should he be elected to the largely ceremonial position.

Despite Mr Bandic's trailing support, it is far from a shoe-in for the official Social Democrat nominee, as voters from right and left may yet rally behind his opponent with the mayor's mix of nationalist rhetoric and promises of food subsidies.

The governing centre-right Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) official candidate, Andrija Hebrang, came in third with 12 per cent. All leading candidates however are EU supporters.

Voter turnout dropped six percent on the last presidential election five years ago to 44 percent, according to the national electoral commission.

The main issues of the debate have centred on corruption, with the ruling HDZ party still dealing with the fall-out of scandals earlier in the year, and the economy, which contracted five percent in 2009 and is set for a further fall in the new year.

Croatia's presidency is for the most part a figurehead position, with key powers retained by parliament and the cabinet.

The head of state is nevertheless the chief of the armed forces and has a great deal of influence in foreign policy.

The outgoing popular centrist President Stjepan Mesic, who put Croatia on the path to EU membership, is to exit the political arena in February after the end of his second five-year term.

The run-off vote is scheduled for 10 January.

Big bang of Balkan enlargement?

Croatia is hoping to join the EU by 2012 after completing its accession talks in 2010. Its entry would make it the second former Yugoslav country to join the bloc following Slovenia in 2004.

Serb leader Boris Tadic last week voiced hope his country will join the union by 2014. His target fits in with earlier calls by Montenegro for the EU to admit all the Western Balkan states before the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I in 2014.

EU officials have said Serb accession is likely to take between five and 10 years, however, while other EU hopefuls, such as Bosnia and Kosovo face problems with internal stability and international recognition.

"While the EU's assessment of countries is based on their own merits, we also believe that there should be no wide time gap in the integration of individual Western Balkan countries into the union," Kosovo's EU envoy, Ilir Dugolli, told EUobserver.