Social democrat Ivo Josipovic is frontrunner but his centre-left government is under fire for failing to revive economy

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Croatians go to the polls to elect a president on Sunday under the cloud of a deep economic crisis, with the incumbent Ivo Josipovic seen as the frontrunner as he seeks a second term in the EU’s newest member state.

Polls showed that of the four candidates vying for the largely ceremonial post, the 57-year-old centre-left leader had only one serious rival, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, of the main opposition conservative HDZ.

With none of the candidates expected to win more than 50% outright, a runoff round on 11 January is likely.

Josipovic – the third president of the former Yugoslav republic since independence in 1991 – is a member of Croatia’s Social Democrats (SDP), the main partner in the ruling coalition.

A former law professor who won office on an anti-corruption ticket, Josipovic famously played Beethoven’s Ode to Joy when Croatia joined the European Union in 2013, hoping membership would revive its flagging economy.

But the economy remains one of the EU’s weakest after six years of recession. Unemployment is close to 20%, half of the country’s youth are jobless and public debt is close to 80% of gross domestic product.

The centre-left government stands accused of failing to carry out the necessary reforms to address the country’s huge and inefficient public sector or improve the investment climate.

Weighed down by the SDP-led government’s unpopularity and accused by critics of not taking a clear stance on key issues, Josipovic has taken a firmer stand in the months leading up to the vote, pledging a “better economy with jobs for every young person”.

Though the president has limited powers – running the country is primarily left to the government – Sunday’s election is seen as a key test for Croatia’s political parties before parliamentary contests in late 2015.

A victory for Grabar-Kitarovic would further boost the position of the HDZ, currently the most popular party. The 46-year-old, who represents moderates within HDZ, is a former foreign and European affairs minister and an ex-Nato assistant secretary general.

During the campaign she criticised Josipovic’s lack of initiative on tackling economic hardship. “He shares the blame with the government for a bad [economic] situation in the country since he remained silent and did nothing,” Grabar-Kitarovic said.

The two other candidates in the race – whose chances according to polls are very slim – are rightist Milan Kujundzic and activist Ivan Vilibor Sincic, who is known for fighting against forced evictions of people who fall behind on debt repayments.

More than 6,000 polling stations opened at 6am, and the first partial results are expected later on Sunday.