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| Europe |
| Croatia's President Faces Runoff |
| 2005-01-03 |
| Croatia's pro-Western president failed to win an outright majority for re-election on Sunday, forcing him to face a runoff vote against the conservative government's candidate in two weeks. Mr. Mesic had 48.92% of the votes in Sunday's election -- just over 1% short of an outright majority that would have given him a first-round victory, the state-run Electoral Commission announced after 99.5% of votes were counted. The turnout was just over 50%. The 70-year-old incumbent, who was backed by most opposition parties, declared the results a "brilliant victory" and voiced confidence that he would win the runoff on Jan. 16. "I led Croatia to the doors of the [mainstream] Europe, and I will lead it to it," Mr. Mesic said, to the euphoric cheers from his supporters. His opponent, Jadranka Kosor, a minister of families and war veterans in the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union-led Cabinet, was trailing far behind with 20.18%. Both Mr. Mesic and Ms. Kosor have pledged to maintain Croatia's pro-Western course and cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |