The People’s Coalition, led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and HDZ are tied at 57 seats, both failing to produce a clear majority in the 151-seat Parliament, according to the Ipsos Puls poll.
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Polling stations opened at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) and close twelve hours later.
If the exit polls are borne out in official results, the first of which will be released later on Sunday, it may give a chance for HDZ to return to government after its previous coalition with Bridge imploded in June after just six months in power.
The ballot is expected to end in another coalition after last November’s vote produced no clear victor, resulting in political deadlock.
The main parties in Croatia are the left-wing Social Democrats and the right-wing Croatian Democratic Union, commonly known as HDZ.
A man casts his ballot at a polling station during a parliamentary election in Zagreb, Croatia, on September 11, 2016.
Authorities have appeared to turn a blind eye to the far-right surge, but it has sparked global concern and brought already frosty ties with Serbia to their lowest level since Croatia’s 1990s independence war. “Croatia needs a stable government and at this moment we still don’t know what that government will be”.
The months-long political deadlock has delayed reforms that are necessary for Croatia to catch up with the rest of the EU.
The parties have dominated Croatia’s political scene since it split from Yugoslavia in the 1990s, but they will likely depend on smaller, kingmaker groups such as pro-reform Most. However, in the past weeks it has sought to remake its image as a centrist party under new leader Andrej Plenkovic.
Parties offer few details on how to deliver promised higher standards of living for Croatia’s 4.3 million people, where unemployment runs at 13 percent.
But he has sharpened his populist rhetoric after disappointing voters with scant reforms while in power and has repeatedly slammed Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic over his ultranationalist wartime stance. “We can’t complain later if the outcome of the election is not the way we want it to be”.
Three years after joining, the country’s record on drawing down European funds is poor, a waste of free money that points to glaring public admnistration shortcomings, contributing to macroeconomic imbalances seen as excessive by the European Commission.
With public debt at 85 percent of gross domestic product, Croatia spends about 3.5 percent of GDP on interest payments alone.
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After suffering prolonged recession before and after joining the European Union in 2013, Croatia is now showing signs of a return to modest growth, but much of the economy remains moribund and unemployment is stuck at about 14 per cent.
