Croatia – things can only get better

Croatia’s fifth presidential elections will be held on December 27, 2009. With the incumbent president, Stjepan Mesić, not being eligible to run for office as he has served two consecutive terms, the results could bring surprises.
The latest Gallup Balkan Monitor results showed that 70% of Croats plan to attend the presidential elections; this compares to an official voting figure of 50.57% in the 2005 elections. It looks certain to be a close-run affair as 47% of respondents told the Gallup Balkan Monitor that they did not know (or would not say) who they planned to vote for and no single candidate stood out from the rest in terms of popularity.
The elections will arrive at a time when the survey results showed Croats to be some of the region’s gloomiest citizens. A majority of respondents (57%) said they were dissatisfied with their standard of living – 16 percentage points up from the numbers feeling that way in 2006. Furthermore, many citizens were unhappy about the future; despite being one of the region’s countries closest to EU accession, it had more citizens thinking that their country was going in a bad direction than any other country in the region.

Whatever happens in the election, people will be expecting improvements – at the time of the 2009 survey, Croats’ confidence in their national government was the lowest in the region (just 22% had a lot or some confidence in it). Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor had the lowest approval rating in the region and 85% described the government’s performance as poor – the region’s highest such rating. This contrasted sharply with the feelings about incumbent President Mesić – who had 56% of respondents saying that they had a lot or some confidence in him.
If no candidate obtains over 50% of the votes in the first round of the election, a second round will be held on 10 January 2010.