Official results show Croatian opposition candidate Ivo Josipovic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has won the most ballots in the country's presidential election with 32.4 percent of the vote. However, he fell short of the 50 percent mark necessary to win in the first round of the election.

A run-off election will take place on January 10, in which Josipovic will compete with the next highest vote-winner among the 11 other candidates in the race.

His opponent will be Milan Bandic, once a member of the SDP until he was expelled from the party for insisting he would run for the presidency. Bandic finished with 14.8 percent of the vote.

The ruling conservative party, the Croatian Democratic Union, saw their candidate Andrija Hebrang come in third place with 12 percent of the vote.

A disinterested public

Sunday's election had a low voter turnout, with only 34 percent of the country's 4.5 million registered voters arriving at polling stations by 3:00 p.m. GMT, just three hours before the stations closed . The turnout was eight percent lower than at the same time in the previous election.

However, of the 4.5 million registered voters, around 400,000 live abroad. Their votes have not yet been included in the exit polls and could potentially change election results.

Bid for the EU

Croatia's presidential election is very much intertwined with the country's bid for EU membership. It hopes to join the European Union by 2011, but must first implement economic reforms to deal with its soaring debt.

Diplomats hope the winner of the presidential election will back the government's anti-corruption efforts and enforce reforms needed to complete EU entry talks next year.

mrh/mk/dpa/Reuters

Editor: Rick Demarest