Slightly over 4.4 million registered voters are entitled to take part in the vote, or 32,263 more than in parliamentary elections in November 2003.
Voters will be able to cast their ballots at 6,731 polling stations in Croatia and Croatian diplomatic and consular missions abroad -- 6,576 polling stations will be open in Croatia, including 10 for Bosnian Croats residing in Croatia and two for Croatian citizens living abroad who happen to be in Zagreb on election day, and 155 abroad, most of them in Bosnia-Herzegovina (42), Germany (15), Australia (15) and Serbia-Montenegro (7).
Polling stations will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. The first polling station will open in New Zealand at 7 p.m. on January 1 Croatian time, and the voting will close at 3 a.m. in Los Angeles.
If on Sunday (2 Janaury) one of the thirteen candidates succeeds to collect at least 50 percent plus one vote out of all voters who have gone to the polls, Croatia will get its new president for a five-year term. If none of candidates manages to win that percentage of ballots, there will be a run-off in 15 days' time involving the first two candidates who have won the largest number of votes in the first round.
Sunday's polls are the fourth presidential elections since Croatia gained independence. The late Franjo Tudjman was elected twice in 1992 and 1997, and the incumbent President Stjepan Mesic, who is seeking his second term, won the 2000 elections.
Besides Mesic, the other 12 candidates are Djurdja Adlesic (nominated by the Social Liberal Party), Miroslav Blazevic, Ljubo Cesic, Mladen Keser, Jadranka Kosor (Croatian Democratic Union), Doris Kosta, Anto Kovacevic (Croatian Christian Democratic Union), Slaven Letica (nominated by Croatian Party of Rights), Boris Miksic, Ivic Pasalic (Croatian Bloc), Tomislav Petrak (Croatian Popular Party), and Miroslav Rajh (Croatian Youth Party).