Zagreb - Croatian parliamentary elections ended quietly Sunday amid a weaker-than-expected turnout, with a close race expected between the frontrunners. Pre-election surveys gave the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) a slight edge, but Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) may benefit from the low turnout.
Around 48 per cent of the 4.1 million voters had cast ballots by 4 pm, with three hours to go into the vote. The turnout was by 2 per cent weaker than in the 2003 poll.
Another 400,000 Croats were eligible to vote in neighbouring Bosnia Saturday and Sunday. The conservative Bosnian Croats, allowed to vote by HDZ in 1994, have turned en masse and could decide the election in case of a close count in Croatia proper.
The two large parties share the goal of EU and NATO membership within the next four years, with the SDP intent on scrapping the conservative influence of Bosnian Croats in elections.
SDP also wants to introduce a capital gains tax which mostly targets the rich, but also tens of thousands of small investors on the local financial market, which bloomed over the past three years.
In any case, neither of the two big parties will fall well short of the majority.
Parties which may figure as coalition partners are the coalition of the Croatian Farmers Party and Croatian Social-Liberal Party (HSS/HSLS), the Regional IStrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) and the nationalist Croatian Party of Rights (HSP).
The Croatian Pensioners Party (HSU) previously figured as the likely junior partner for the cabinet coalition.
