ZAGREB, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the opposition Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) have won four seats each in European Parliament elections in Croatia, preliminary results revealed on Sunday night.
According to unofficial results after the State Electoral Commission (DIP) had counted ballots of over 95 percent, the HDZ won 23 percent of the vote, while SDP got 18.4 percent.
The results came as somewhat a surprise, because all the polls before the elections indicated a convincing victory of HDZ.
Independent candidate Mislav Kolakusic, a former judge, also surprisingly took one seat by winning 7.7 percent of votes. He had also announced the candidacy for the presidential elections in Croatia, to be held by the end of the year.
The right-wing party Croatian Soverenists, populists Zivi Zid and left-liberal Amsterdam Coalition won one seat each.
The voter turnout this year was 29.4 percent.
The HDZ belongs to the European People's Party, and the SDP to the socialists, while representatives of other parties and independent candidates will only determine which political option will be in the European Parliament.
Sunday's elections in Croatia passed without major incidents, in a democratic atmosphere, concluded Gong, a non-partisan association that controls the elections in Croatia.
