Members of Mesic's election team, located in the building of the Croatian Journalists' Association in Zagreb, greeted with cheers the results of exit polls conducted by the independent market and public opinion research agency Puls, which showed that Mesic had won the elections.
Ivica Racan, the leader of the strongest opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), which supported Mesic's candidacy, said they were satisfied with the returns.
Racan said that he was also surprised by the results of the exit polls which put independent candidate Boris Miksic in the second place, with Mesic winning around 50 percent of the vote.
The spokeswoman for Mesic's election team, Marijana Petir, also expressed satisfaction with the exit polls.
A presidential candidate needs to win 50 percent plus one vote to win elections in the first round, otherwise the first two candidates face a run off.