Poll says Mesic wins second Croatian vote

ABC ^ | Jan 16, 2005 | SNJEZANA VUKIC

[nickcarraway]

ZAGREB, Croatia Jan 16, 2005 — Croatian President Stipe Mesic was overwhelmingly elected to a second term in Sunday's runoff election, winning more than 71 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll.

The GfK research agency said Mesic received 71.1 percent of the votes cast, while conservative governing-party rival Jadranka Kosor, the Cabinet minister in charge of families and war veterans, received 25.5 percent.

The poll surveyed 20,000 people, the head of the agency, Dinko Svetopetric, told private Nova TV.

The runoff was held because Mesic, 70, won about 49 percent of the votes in the first round of voting held Jan. 2, falling just short of the required absolute majority.

If Mesic's victory is confirmed by the Electoral Commission, it gives him a mandate for his post until 2009, when Croatia hopes to join the European Union. He already has been praised both at home and abroad for moving this former Yugoslav country closer to the West.

Both candidates were considered pro-Western and pledged to work on bringing the former Yugoslav country of 4.5 million into the EU and NATO. The nation gained independence 12 years ago through a bloody war with its rebel Serbs.

About 4.4 million people including 400,000 Croats living abroad registered to vote at about 6,700 polling stations. Polls closed at 1 p.m. EST after being open 12 hours. Preliminary official results were expected at 6 p.m. EST.

Three hours before polls were scheduled to close, only about 40 percent of voters had cast ballots. In the first round, the total turnout was low, at about 50 percent.

The president's role is largely limited to crafting foreign policy together with the prime minister.

Mesic was backed by the country's center-left opposition, while Kosor, 51, came from the governing Croatian Democratic Union, which returned to power a year ago after distancing itself from its nationalist roots to become a pro-European conservative group.

Mesic pointed to his record of leading the country out of international isolation and insisted he should keep his post to "check and correct" the ruling party's moves.

Mesic is "decisive, consistent and yet such a nice person a true leader," said Zlatko Najman, 47, a construction technician casting his ballot in downtown Zagreb.

His wife, Gorana, 47, said Kosor was "just a prolonged hand of her party."

But Bruno Cavic, 49, a retired war veteran, said he opted for Kosor because, "we need a change every now and then. Let new people bring new ideas."

Both Mesic and Kosor pledged to cooperate fully with the U.N. war crimes court a key condition for Croatia to begin EU membership talks March 17. War veterans and nationalists declared Mesic a national traitor for cooperating with the U.N. court that charged several Croatian generals with war crimes.

The Croatian Democratic Union party of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader governed Croatia almost single-handedly during the autocratic 1990-2000 rule of the late President Franjo Tudjman, whom Mesic succeeded.

Kosor focused much of her campaign on emphasizing her patriotism. National interests come "before and above all" and Croat fighters are heroes, she said, adding that her role model was Tudjman.

"We've experienced a one-party system already and it turned to be detrimental," said Ljerka Kovacevic, a 61-year-old retired economist.