Commenting on exit poll results, which show that Mesic won slightly below 70 percent of votes, Mesic's numerous friends and political partners who gathered in the HND building said that this was what they had expected before the run-off.
If these results, which show that his rival, Jadranka Kosor of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), won about 30 percent, are proved accurate later in tonight by the State Election Commission (DIP), Mesic will be the candidate who so far has won the highest percentage of votes in presidential elections since Croatia gained its independence.
Franjo Tudjman won the elections in 1992 and 1997, and Mesic in 2000.
The Croatian People's Party (HNS) leader, Vesna Pusic, whose party supported Mesic's candidacy for a second term, highlighted this highest percentage won by a presidential candidate so far.
She said that it was good to have had the second round of the polls as the results showed that Stjepan Mesic was a politician who could unite the political scene ahead of Croatia's admission into the EU.
Ivica Racan of the strongest opposition party, the Social Democratic Union (SDP), which also supported Mesic, said he had expected such a victory.
"We could have been without the second round and could have saved some 50 million kuna, but democracy has its price," Racan said alluding to the fact that Mesic needed only a few more percentage points to have won the outright majority (50 percent plus one vote) necessary to be declared the winner in the first round and that the results in the Diaspora changed that.
"Today's results can also be treated as the defeat of the HDZ," Racan said.
The leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), Zlatko Tomcic, agreed with Racan that Mesic's convincing victory meant the defeat of the HDZ.
Tomcic added that the poor results of the HDZ would also have an effect on the HDZ's performance in the next local elections, due to be held this spring.
The HSS chief, too, said the second round of the elections would have been unnecessary if the presidential polls had been organised only in Croatia, namely without out-of-country voting, notably in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"Those who live in Croatia should be the only ones to decide on Croatia's President," Tomcic said.