Thus, Josipovic, with 685,815 ballot papers won (38.5%), and Grabar-Kitarovic, diplomat and former minister, with some 24,000 fewer ballot papers (37.17%), finished neck and neck in Sunday's first round and will compete in a runoff set for 11 January, according to the incomplete results published by the State Electoral Commission (DIP).
Ivan Sincic of the nongovernmental organisation Human Barrier was third with 16.44% of the vote, while Milan Kujundzic of the Alliance for Croatia brought up the rear with 6.28%.
The turnout was 47.11% with 1.74 million Croatians out of a total of 3.8 million eligible voters braving the snowy storms to go to the polls. According to the DIP, there were 1.56% invalid ballot papers.
Apart from Croatia, this presidential election was organised in 50 other countries, five fewer than in the last election. The number of polling stations for out-of-country voting has been reduced from 250 to 90, and voters voting outside Croatia could do so only in Croatian diplomatic and consular offices. Most such polling stations were set up in Bosnia and Herzegovina (15) and Germany (13) for this poll.
The Croatian president is elected by a majority election system, namely the candidate who wins the most votes of all voters participating in the elections (50% plus one vote) is President-elect. If this does not happen, the two candidates with the most votes compete in a second round, which is held 14 days later, in this case on 11 January.