- Title: Croatian president, former PM in presidential run-off on Jan. 5
- Date: 22nd December 2019
- Summary: ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF GRABAR-KITAROVIC SUPPORTERS SINGING AND CELEBRATING AT CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS GRABAR-KITAROVIC PASSING BY CAMERA, GREETING SUPPORTERS
- Embargoed: 5th January 2020 23:53
- Keywords: Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic Miroslav Skoro Zoran Milanovic election
- Location: ZAGREB, CROATIA
- City: ZAGREB, CROATIA
- Country: Croatia
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA004BB25ETJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The Socialist Democrats' candidate and former prime minister Zoran Milanovic came top in the first round of Croatia's presidential election, the State Electoral Commission said on Sunday (December 22) after 99% of votes were counted.
Milanovic got 29.5% of the votes ahead of incumbent centre-right president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the candidate of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), with 26.7%.
Independent candidate Miroslav Skoro, a popular singer with conservative nationalist-leaning views came in third with 24.4% of votes.
Milanovic and Grabar-Kitarovic will face in a run-off on Jan. 5, 2020.
The presidential role is to a large extent ceremonial as the head of state cannot veto laws, but has a say in foreign policy and defence matters.
The president has a five-year term with the next one starting in February 2020.
Despite her second place in the first round Grabar-Kitarovic, whose first term in office some observers assessed as rather bland with little policy substance and a lot of populist patriotic rhetoric, seems to be the favourite in the second round.
(Production: Boris Kavic, Fedja Grulovic, David Spaic) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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