Ivo Josipovic

Croatians cast ballots Sunday to elect a president in a tight run-off between incumbent centre-left Ivo Josipovic and conservative Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, both pledging to help kickstart the newest EU member's ailing economy.
      

ZAGREB - We will support Serbia on its EU path, but it needs to fulfil all the conditions Croatia fulfilled in the process, Croatian President and presidential candidate Ivo Josipovic said on Sunday.

After a close race in the first round of Croatian presidential elections, voters today will decide whether their head of state for the next five years will be the centre-left incumbent, Ivo Josipovic, or the candidate of the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic. First results are expected some time this evening.

Incumbent president Ivo Josipovic, who is supported by centre-left government parties, and his challenger Kolida Grabar Kitarovic, the candidate of the centre-right opposition Croatian Democratic Union, both had words of warning for EU hopeful Serbia during the debate on Nova TV on Thursday evening.

Croatian presidential candidate on conditions for Serbia

ZAGREB -- A Croatian presidential candidate has said that she would condition Serbia's EU membership path "with the return of the missing persons from the (1990s) war."

With the second round of the presidential elections scheduled for Sunday, the race between incumbent, Ivo Josipovic, and the centre-right challenger, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, has entered its last days.

Both candidates made the final pitch for swing voters as polls predict the gap closing between them.

Competition between the incumbent president Ivo Josipovic and his challenger Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic heated up on Sunday in the televised debate as the two candidates vied for support ahead of the second-round run-off vote.

Political pundits and pollsters are puzzling over the unexpectedly narrow lead taken by Ivo Josipovic in the first round of the Croatian presidential elections on December 28.

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Josipovic wins first-round vote with slight margin

ZAGREB -- Croatian President Ivo Josipovic scored a slight advantage against HDZ party candidate Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic in the first round of the presidential election.

Croatia's incumbent head of state Ivo Josipovic and his main challenger, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, will face each other in a run-off presidential vote on 11 January 2015, an exit poll showed on Sunday.