Croatian media didn't appear to pay much attention to presidential elections in Romania. One of possible explanations could be in the result of Romanian contest, which looks eerily similar to what appear to be the most likely outcome of Croatian presidential contest - left-wing candidate leading after first round of voting, only to be crushed by united right-wing and expat vote in second.
Croatian media - just like in 2005 - desperately tries to make the presidential contest as "tight" and unpredictable as possible. In case of 2010 election, this tightness and unpredictability appears to be limited to first round only. With SDP candidate Ivo Josipović leading relatively comfortably with 25-30 percent in polls, the real battle is waged with not two, but four right-wing candidates. One of them is going to be qualified for second round and expect to harvest most of the votes among the remaining three.
Conventional wisdom suggests that Milan Bandić, popular and controversial Zagreb mayor who got bolted from SDP following announcement of independent run, is a favourite with cca. 15 percent of vote. Yet, despite lavish campaign, he never managed to escape from third-placed Nadan Vidošević, who is not far with 13 percent. Surprisingly, two other candidates also take double digits in poll - former education and science minister Dragan Primorac ("affectionately" called Psycho) and Andrija Hebrang, official HDZ candidate whowas, until very recently, all but written-off as serious candidate.
Fiercest battle, so far, appears to be between Vidošević and Primorac who - as educated and "urban" public figures - are fighting for the same moderate, centrist electorate. Primorac publicly accused Vidošević of enriching himself in 1990s through not-so-legal means, while Vidošević accusses former minister of beating his ex-girlfriend.
All this presidential drama, which left many of former Croatian political junkies uncharacteristically cold and cynical, is happening in the shadow of political process which some began to call Desandaresiation. New prime minister Jadranka Kosor does everything in her power to distance herself from the former prime minister and her mentor Ivo Sanader, including tipping friendly media about very unsubtle removal of Sanader's official photographs from HDZ headquarters. In the meantime, soon-to-be-ex President Stipe Mesić all but demands immediate arrest of Sanader over his role in serious of corruption affairs - something that didn't bother him much during Sanader's six years in office, where two men used to be model of friendly political cohabitation.
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