CROATIA: Anti-corruption main theme for candidates in upcoming Presidential election

Record ID: 741590

  • Title: CROATIA: Anti-corruption main theme for candidates in upcoming Presidential election
  • Date: 26th December 2009
  • Summary: ZAGREB, CROATIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) PUSIC'S CAMPAIGN STAND, PEOPLE GATHERED FOR RALLY IN SNOW PUSIC'S SUPPORTERS IN FRONT OF STAGE
  • Embargoed: 10th January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Croatia
  • Country: Croatia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA550LMN0D6UHOLPCS4CBCYW82C
  • Story Text: Croats go to the polls on Sunday (December 27) to choose a new head of state who diplomats hope will back the government's reformist drive, needed to complete European Union entry talks next year.
    The election comes at a time when Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's government has stepped up efforts to fight corruption, with several high-level investigations into state companies under way.
    The winner will replace veteran reformer Stjepan Mesic, whose second five-year mandate expires in February, and diplomats said it was important that the successor is clearly seen as a partisan of reforms and the anti-graft drive.
    Opposition candidate Ivo Josipovic, a Social Democrat (SDP) tops the polls but is unlikely to score an outright victory, which requires 50 percent of all votes. This means he will face off against the runner-up on January 10.
    There are altogether 12 runners in the first round. All top candidates support Croatia's efforts to join the EU, which Zagreb hopes to do during the new president's mandate, in 2012.
    Although a largely ceremonial figure in the former Yugoslav republic, the president has a say in foreign policy, security and defence, but no power to veto legislation.
    In the long and bland campaign candidates have played up a myriad of issues from the economy to the 1991-1995 war, but promises to fight corruption top their agenda.
    Josipovic says the president has a special moral and political authority in the country.
    "With that in mind I will ask all political factors in the country, starting from the government, to fully implement anti-corruption programmes and to press on with anti-corruption measures using all political tools.", he told Reuters during his rally in Zagreb on Tuesday (December 22).
    Independent candidate Nadan Vidosevic says it is of paramount importance to suppress crime in Croatia.
    "Crime has become wide spread and it is becoming part of the system. It has become common in Croatia not to pay for ordered services, which facilitates corruption. From banal things like getting better care in hospitals, speeding up things in city administration, to serious crime in the sector of public spending," said, during a campaign visit to the island of Brac.
    With the president essentially being Croatia's face in its dealings with the rest of the world, part of the contest has also been about the kind of person that can represent who Croats are, or who Croats wish they could be. Candidates are each playing up their strong points, from their education or professional credentials, to their sharp dress sense or matinee idol good looks, and even to their sense of humour and salt-of-the-earth cunning.
    To spice up his image as upstanding but stiff and boring, frontrunner Jospovic, who is the holder of a university degree in music and a PhD in law, strives to present his lighter side as a laid-back conversationalist and hobby musician.
    Vidosevic, a wealthy businessman and a renegade from the ruling HDZ, is hoping to capitalise on his photogenic charm and good looks, which are delighting female voters of all ages and have earned him the nickname 'George Clooney' for his passing resemblance to the American movie star.
    Another of the main frontrunners, powerful Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic, has led a colourful and eventful campaign that shows him as a man of few words but a lot of often comedic action. Bandic's flamboyance and media coverage of his many mishaps appears to have endeared him to voters and he could end up as a surprisingly strong contender.
    The official candidate of the ruling HDZ party, stiff and serious medical doctor Andrija Hebrang, is running on a ticket of stability and gravitas.
    With witty advertising and a message that would win her friends in both Brussels and Croatia's Balkan neighbours, the main female contender People's Party candidate Vesna Pusic, is shown to be a rising star among the roster of frontrunners despite the general ambivalence among conservative Croats for a female head of state. But analysts say her chances to enter the second round are slim.
    "This campaign is showing that corruption is not just in politics but within society as well," independent political analyst Davor Gjenero told Reuters.
    "For example, candidates who are officially running as independent but have only very recently left their political parties, and already have reputations for being corrupt or have been involved in cases where there has been a conflict of interest, and also have a difficult time to explain where their wealth comes from, have very good ratings. And their their campaigns have big budgets and they are all over the place in the media," he added.
    Weary of empty promises, corruption affairs and economic crisis many people interviewed in Zagreb say they see no trustworthy choice among the candidates and do not believe in a major change for the better regardless of the outcome of Sunday's election.
    "They were all in power before before and they are to blame for where we are today," clerk Pero told Reuters.
    Croatia is a staunchly Roman Catholic country and its electorate is mostly conservative. HDZ has been in power almost the whole time since independence in 1991. The SDP ruled only from 2000 to 2003, when it started reforms and set the country on course towards NATO and EU membership.
    Some 4.4 million people are eligible to vote, including more than 400, 000 living abroad, mostly in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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