Presidential candidate Dragan Primorac votes at a polling station during the second round of the presidential election in Zagreb, Croatia, Jan. 12, 2025. Voting for Croatia's presidential runoff began at 7 a.m. local time on Sunday, with over 3.7 million eligible voters across the country choosing between incumbent President Zoran Milanovic and his rival Dragan Primorac. (Slavko Midzor/PIXSELL via Xinhua)
ZAGREB, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Voting for Croatia's presidential runoff began at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday, with over 3.7 million eligible voters across the country choosing between incumbent President Zoran Milanovic and his rival Dragan Primorac.
The State Electoral Commission has called on voters to go to the polls to exercise their right to vote.
The first round of voting was held on Dec. 29, 2024. Among the eight candidates, Milanovic, backed by the largest opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, and Primorac, supported by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, ranked first and second with 49.09 percent and 19.35 percent of the votes respectively.
According to Croatian law, if no one secures more than half of the votes in the first round, the two leading candidates will be enrolled in a presidential runoff held two weeks later.
Milanovic, who narrowly missed an outright victory in the first round, entered the second round with a huge advantage over Primorac. According to the results of the latest poll released ahead of the runoff, Milanovic's support rate was 62.5 percent, while Primorac's was 27.8 percent.
The Croatian president serves a five-year term and can be re-elected once. ■
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic votes at a polling station during the second round of the presidential election in Zagreb, Croatia, Jan. 12, 2025. Voting for Croatia's presidential runoff began at 7 a.m. local time on Sunday, with over 3.7 million eligible voters across the country choosing between incumbent President Zoran Milanovic and his rival Dragan Primorac. (Davor Puklavec/PIXSELL via Xinhua)
