(12 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zagreb, Croatia – 12 January 2025
1. Various of Croatian presidential candidate Dragan Primorac arriving, voting, leaving polling station, speaking to journalists
2. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Dragan Primorac, Croatian presidential candidate:
“All elections are in some sense historic and important because they are a festival of democracy. This one decides the presidency of Croatia for the next five years. That’s very important. This is about the future of Croatia. It’s about the future of our homeland, our citizens and, really, the direction that it would go from here."
3. Various of Primorac posing for photos, leaving
4. Various of polling officials preparing to greet voters and open polls
5. Various of people voting
6. Close of official checking voting registry
7. Woman casting ballot
STORYLINE:
Conservative candidate Dragan Primorac cast his ballot in Croatia’s presidential election runoff on Sunday.
In the first round, held on Dec. 29, incumbent president Zoran Milanovic won 49% of the vote, falling short of half the vote needed for an outright win.
Primorac, candidate of the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union(HDZ) party, trailed far behind with 19% percent, with none of the other six candidates reached double digits.
Primorac, 59, entered politics in the early 2000s, when he was science and education minister in the HDZ-led government.
He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 2009, and after that mainly focused on his academic career including lecturing at universities in the United States, China and in Croatia.
Croatia’s left-leaning incumbent president Milanovic, an outspoken critic of Western military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, is running for his second five-year term against Primorac.
The most popular politician in Croatia, 58-year-old Milanovic has served as prime minister in the past, and is the overwhelming favourite to win.
Populist in style, he has been a fierce critic of current Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and continuous sparring between the two has marked Croatia’s political scene over the past several years.
Milanovic has criticized the NATO and European Union support for Ukraine and has often insisted that Croatia should not take sides.
He has said Croatia should stay away from global disputes, though it is a member of both NATO and the EU.
Though the presidency is largely ceremonial in Croatia, an elected president holds political authority and acts as the supreme military commander.
Croatia has around 3.5 million eligible voters. The turnout in the first round was 46%, the lowest in any presidential election since 2009.
Polls close at 18:00 GMT, first results are expected around 20:00 GMT.
AP video shot by Eldar Emric
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