According to TV stations' first exit polls, the Social Democratic Party's (SDP) candidate, Ivo Josipovic, has won 32.7 per cent of the vote in Sunday's presidential election and would run in a second round with independent candidate Milan Bandic, who has won 14.1 per cent of the vote.
Two other presidential candidates may hope to be in the run-off - theCroatian Democratic Union's Andrija Hebrang and independent candidate NadanVidosevic, with exit polls showing them winning 12.1 and 11.6 per cent of thevote respectively.
The director of Josipovic's campaign, Mirando Mrsic, said the election teamhad expected these results as Josipovic had always led in surveys prior totoday's vote.
He voiced confidence that Josipovic was Croatia's new president.
Asked which opponent he would like to see in the run-off, Mrsic said allother candidates were appropriate. Asked if this also included Bandic, a formermember of the SDP, he answered in the affirmative.
Josipovic is expected to arrive at his election headquarters around 9 pm andmake an address around 21.50 hrs. He is scheduled to comment on the returnsafter midnight, as soon as the State Electoral Commission releases the firstunofficial election results.
