Croatia began voting in a parliamentary election on Wednesday after a bitter campaign between a prime minister seeking a new term and a populist president who wants to be head of government despite a court warning.
The showdown between Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, a conservative, and President Zoran Milanovic, a left-wing populist, comes as the European Union nation wrestles with corruption, a labour shortage, the highest inflation rate in the eurozone and illegal migration.
For months, Plenkovic and his ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) seemed poised for an easy victory that would secure his third term as premier.
