Zagreb - Croatia is to hold presidential elections on December 27, at the end of President Stjepan Mesic's second and final term in the office, the government announced Friday in Zagreb. A run-off, if no candidate wins an absolute majority, is set to take place two weeks later, on January 10.
Mesic, 74, won the past two elections, in 2000 and 2005, and cannot run again.
Before that, he had served as a member of the former Yugoslavia's presidency. After Croatia split from the federation in 1991, he became the new country's parliamentary speaker and premier.
The campaign for presidential elections formally begins on November 4. To run, a candidate must collect 15,000 signatures in Croatia, a country of 4.5 million inhabitants.
