FINAL UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: MESIC WINS FIRST ROUND OF ELECTION

ZAGREB, Jan 26 (Hina) - The Croatian National Electoral Commission on Wednesday announced final unofficial results of the presidential election, held on January 24. The candidate of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), Stjepan Mesic, mustered most of the vote - 1,100,671 ballots or 41,11 percent - while Drazen Budisa, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party/Croatian Social Liberal Party (SDP/HSLS) coalition came in second winning 741,837 voting papers or 27.71 percent of the vote.#L# The data covered a total of 7,038 polling stations at which 2,677,561 voters cast their ballots. A voter turnout was 62.98 percent of 4,251,109 registered voters. As none of the candidates has won a majority of the vote (over 50 percent of ballots cast in the first round of the election), Mesic and Budisa will contest the presidential run-off on February 7. According to the Commission, Mate Granic of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) came in third in the first round with 22.47 percent of the vote, and an independent candidate, Slaven Letica, was on the fourth place with 4.14 percent of the vote. He is followed by the candidate of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), Anto Djapic, with 1.84 percent. Both independent candidate Ante Ledic and the candidate of the Croatian Popular Party (HPS), Tomislav Mercep, gained 0.85 percent. The candidate of the New Croatia (NH) party, Ante Prkacin, came in eighth with 0.28 percent of the vote, while the last in the standing is Zvonimir Separovic with 0.27 percent of the vote. There were 2,664,349 valid ballots or 99.51 percent of all cast papers, while spoilt voting papers totalled 13,212 or 0.49 percent. (hina) ms