"I believe that my victory in the first round would be logical in view of what has been done over the past period," Mesic said in a Croatian radio programme, adding that he was content with what he had done during his term in office.
Mesic expressed confidence that he would attract votes from young people, because he has been advocating job creation and high-quality education, then from women, because he supports gender equality, from working people, because he thinks they ought to have motivating salaries, and from pensioners, because economic growth which he supports will result in rising pension allowances.
The incumbent president said that he was not surprised with the number of his rivals and that they had different reasons for running in the presidential race.
He said that the presidential campaign would have been much tougher if Andrija Hebrang had been chosen as the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) candidate instead of Jadranka Kosor.
Speaking of Kosor, Mesic said that she had joined the HDZ in 1995 and that she had never said she had joined the party because she supported its platform or because she thought it could resolve certain problems in this country, but because she had found a father in the late president Tudjman. "In her search for a father, she found a party," he added.
"That is something that does not carry much weight either with the HDZ or with voters who will firmly accept a candidate, because first of all you must give a message as to what you can do and what should be done in the country," he added.
Responding to a journalist's question, Mesic said it would be a step back for Croatia if the next head of state were also from the HDZ, along with the parliament speaker and the prime minister.
Mesic said he believed the election campaign would be short and that he planned to spend around two million kuna on the campaign, which he said would be much less than he had spent on the previous campaign. He added that he would only accept donations transparently credited to his account.
Mesic said his election team would include independent economist Mladen Vedris and Social Democratic Mayor of Pozega Zdravko Ronko.
Mesic said he did not have an election slogan yet, but added that it might be "Croatia can do better".