Croatia’s Milanovic to face rival in election run-off next month

Incumbent president narrowly missed an outright win, securing 49.1% of the vote, while rival Primorac garnered 19.35%.

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic is set to face-off against his conservative rival, Dragan Primorac, in a run-off election in two weeks.

Official results show that the incumbent narrowly fell short of securing an outright victory in Sunday’s vote.

The results followed an exit poll released immediately after polling stations closed, indicating that Milanovic, supported by the opposition left-wing Social Democrats, had secured more than 50 percent of the first-round vote, potentially avoiding the January 12 run-off.

Milanovic won 49.1 percent of the first-round vote. Primorac, backed by the ruling conservative HDZ party, took 19.35 percent, according to results released by the state electoral commission from nearly all of the polling stations.

On Sunday evening, Milanovic pledged to his supporters who gathered in Zagreb to “fight for Croatia with a clear stance, one that takes care of its interests”.