Voting began Sunday in Croatian presidential elections, with a dozen candidates running for the post and the task of leading the nation to European Union membership, dpa reported.
The opposition Social Democratic Party's (SPD) candidate, Ivo Josipovic, was the clear front-runner in final pre-election public opinion surveys.
However, he is not expected to win more than 50 per cent of the votes needed for an outright election victory, and so would have to face the next best-placed rival in a run-off vote on January 10.
Fighting for the place in the run-off are Zagreb mayor and SPD defector Milan Bandic, independent candidate Nadan Vidosevic and the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union's Andrija Hebrang.
Incumbent President Stjepan Mesic is leaving office after serving the maximum two five-year terms.
There are some 4.5 million registered voters in Croatia, including some 400,000 who live abroad, mostly in Bosnia. The first results are expected shortly after voting ends at 7 pm (1800 GMT)
After splitting from Yugoslavia in 1991, Croatia fought Belgrade- backed insurgent Serbs until 1995. Now the country is the next in line to join the European Union.
But it also faces hardship, including some delayed, painful reforms and the growing pressure of the huge foreign debt, which is expected to become larger than its annual gross domestic product in 2010.