Zoran Milanović

The lowest-ever turnout in Croatia in the elections held on September 11 should be seen "as an expression of the feeling of citizens that there is not as much power in politics as there used to be", Zagreb Political Sciences Professor Dejan Jovic said.

Tonino Picula and Ranko Ostojic said they would stand for the leadership of Croatia's leading centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, after the party's current president Zoran Milanovic announced on Monday that he will not run for internal elections that will be scheduled within five months.

Both men hope to reverse the decline in the party's popularity by turning it to the left.

Following his party's defeat in Croatia's parliamentary elections on Sunday, the president of the leading centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, Zoran Milanovic, on Monday announced he will not be running in the internal party elections for the leadership that will be held within five months.

First results in the Croatian elections published by the State Election Commission after counting votes at 71 per cent polling stations put the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, in the lead after winning 61 seats.

Polling stations opened at 7am for just under 3.8 million voters who have an opportunity to cast votes for parliament for the second time in Croatia in ten months.

Voters in Croatia and abroad - diaspora and Bosnian Croats - can choose from among 177 lists of parties, coalitions and individual candidates for 12 constituencies.

Experts worry that Zoran MIlanovic's comfortable victory of his fourth term as party president of Croatia's strongest opposition party, the centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, may signal a monopoly of power within the party.

Representatives of Croatia and Slovenia will meet again at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, PCA, in The Hague on Thursday to try and resolve their issues over maritime borders in the Piran Gulf, off the two neighbouring countries' coasts - a dispute that dates back to the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and Prime Minsiter Tihomir Oreskovic will meet on Tuesday in Zagreb to discuss the fate of the head of Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA.

Media reports say the future of Dragan Lozancic, the head of SOA, will be the main topic of the discussion.

Zoran Milanovic said on Monday he was concerned that "people from a criminal, spying, and pro-Ustasha coalition" are coming to power in Croatia.

Croatia's governing centre-left coalition, Croatia Grows, on Wednesday said it had accepted the key terms set by the post-election kingmaker party, the Bridge of Independent Lists, MOST.