Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Ivo Josipovic was elected President of Croatia in the second round of voting on Sunday, capturing 60.29 per cent of the vote (that is 1,339,063 of cast ballots), according to preliminary official results released by the State Electoral Commission (DIP) at midnight.
His rival, independent candidate Milan Bandic, received 39.71 per cent(881,939) , DIP chairman Branko Hrvatin said at a press conference, adding thatthe findings were based on the processing of the returns from 6848 pollingstations out of a total of 6863 polling stations.
The turnout was 50.28 per cent and 98.64 per cent of ballots were valid.
Broken down by county, Josipovic won in all counties but Lika-Senj, with thehighest margin in Istria ((83.37 per cent). Bandic won 51.94 per cent inLika-Senj County.
In the City of Zagreb, Josipovic garnered 62.19 per cent and Bandic 37.81per cent.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, where nearly 100,000 voters went to the polls, or36.65 per cent, Bandic mustered 94.28 per cent according to DIP preliminary andincomplete results.
Josipovic and Bandic, the Zagreb mayor who ran as an independent candidate,competed in the run-off after they finished first and second in the first roundof the vote on 27 December, when there were a total of 12 candidates.
This was the fifth presidential election since Croatia gained independence.Franjo Tudjman was elected president in 1992 and 1997, while the outgoingPresident Stjepan Mesic was elected in 2000 and 2005.
