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Exit polls from Croatian elections give narrow lead to Social Democrats

According to preliminary data by the Ipsos Puls polling service, the Social Democrats would have 58 seats in the 151-seat parliament, HDZ could have 57 seats, while the center-right independent Most party is anticipated to have 11 mandates.

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The date for the early elections was set in mid-July by President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic after the HDZ-MOST coalition government fell in June.

Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic’s party secured two seats, while the Living Wall performed better than expected, winning eight seats in parliament.

The MOST party, which was the third victor in last election held in November 2015, would get 12 seats and a small party Living Wall could make a new surprise with seven seats, six more than last time, the polls added.

The vote results represented a huge blow for Milanovic whose Social Democrats — the main party in the Peoples’ Coalition — had been considered clear favorites.

Most wants to change how political parties are financed, lower business taxes, and create an Adriatic economic zone – a proposal that would likely need extensive talks with Croatia’s European Union partners.

Under former Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, the SDP hoped to wrest control from the short-lived technocratic government, and the HDZ hoped a new leader, European Parliamentarian Andrej Plenkovic, would win back lost ground and renew the coalition. The HDZ beat the Social Democrat-led alliance, which won 54 seats.

This means that that some of the smaller groups could play the role of kingmakers, as was the case with the pro-reform Most group in the previous government.

The previous HDZ-Most government collapsed after just five months amid rows over public administration reforms and government appointments. Former members of the MOST-HDZ cabinet expressed vitriolic contempt against ethnic Serbs and nostalgia for Croatia’s WWII fascist regime.

Some 3.8 million Croatians are eligible to vote in the polls, which come less than a year after an election last November produced no absolute victor. “We can’t complain later if the outcome of the election is not the way we want it to be”.

The economy, relying largely on tourism along the country’s Adriatic coast, remains one of the European Union’s weakest despite some recent positive indicators attributed to membership of the bloc.

After a six-year recession, Croatia has shown signs of recovery with reported growth of more than 2 percent. However, unemployment hovers around 14 percent.

Morana, a 27-year-old teacher from Zagreb, said she was voting for SDP.

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“I think we have succeeded in introducing a new culture of communication and dialogue in this campaign, bringing the content back to politics, basing the campaign on the program”.

A man casts his ballot at a polling station during a parliamentary election in Zagreb