Zagreb, 21 May 2013: Croatia’s first round of local elections produced very few conclusive results. In most large cities the two leading mayoral candidates will face each other again in a second round of voting on 2 June. In Zagreb, the country’s capital, the incumbent mayor Milan Bandic, who ran on a populist platform, will face the social democrat health minister in the run off election. The mayor, who was once a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has been moving steadily to the right during the last four years. A win for the mayor would be a significant set-back for the centre-left government of Premier Zoran Milanovic.

The Social Democrats are, however, well placed to capture Split on the Dalmatian coast, where the homophobic incumbent mayor only came third behind the candidates from the SPD and the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

In Croatia’s third-largest city, Rijeka, the SDP incumbent mayor looks like winning a fifth term. Preliminary results have Vojko Obersnel on 48 per cent. He will face the conservative candidate on 2 June.

Voter turnout was again extremely low with only about 33 per cent of voters casting their ballots. Voting took place in 555 cities and 21 provinces. Croatia will become the 28th member of the European Union (EU) on 1 July this year.