ZAGREB, Jan 25 (Hina) - Stipe Mesic, the candidate of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), supported by other parties in the "Four" block at Croatia's presidential election, won the top place in 18 Croatian counties out of 21 at
Monday's voting.
ZAGREB, Jan 25 (Hina) - Stipe Mesic, the candidate of the Croatian
People's Party (HNS), supported by other parties in the "Four"
block at Croatia's presidential election, won the top place in 18
Croatian counties out of 21 at Monday's voting.#L#
The other candidate who will contest the February 7 presidential
run-off, Drazen Budisa of the SDP/HSLS coalition, took the lead in
three counties, according to unofficial preliminary results.
Mate Granic of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) who was the third
according to first preliminary results, won the top place in the
Croatian Diaspora.
Mesic mustered over 50 percent of the vote in four counties - Istria
(61.65 percent), Krapina-Zagorje, Virovitica-Podravina and
Zagreb County.
Drazen Budisa of the Social-Democratic Party/Croatian Social
Liberal Party (SDP-HSLS) coalition was on the second place even in
13 counties. He was third in five counties, while he mustered more
votes than other eight candidates in three counties - Medjimurje,
Sibenik-Knin and Dubrovnik-Neretva.
Returns from 141 polls organised outside Croatia in 48 countries
differ considerably from preliminary results in Croatia. Mate
Granic won the election convincingly in the Diaspora with 67.65
percent.
A voter turnout at the polling stations abroad was rather poor: just
18.96 percent of 396,325 eligible voters in those 48 countries went
to the polls on Monday.
(hina) mm ms