Croatia's pre-election silence ahead of presidential elections: Who are the candidates?

AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS

Croatia has been in a state of election silence since midnight ahead of Sunday's presidential elections, in which eight candidates will participate.

The clear favorite is incumbent President Zoran Milanović (58), who has re-entered the race for a new five-year term as a candidate of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its partners from the center-left and center.

Pre-election polls predict that Milanović will not manage to win more than 50 percent of the votes cast on Sunday, which is necessary to win in the first round, but that he will face the candidate of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Dragan Primorac in the second round, whom he called "as fake as a 13-euro note and as boring as a friendly match".

Almost 3.8 million voters have the right to vote, of which about 250,000 are actively registered abroad. More than 6,750 polling stations will be open for the elections.

Election silence will last until the polls close on Sunday at 7 p.m., when the first exit poll results are expected.

The State Election Commission will begin publishing the first partial results at 8 p.m.