the president has an advantage when she meets the social-democratic challenger in the decisive round of voting in January.

From Zoran Milanovic has on Sunday won the first round of the presidential elections in Croatia over the incumbent president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.

It shows the almost finished result on Sunday night, after 99 percent of the votes are counted.

But the president has an advantage over the former prime minister Milanovic, when the two meet again in the second and decisive round of voting in two weeks.

Many of the voters who voted at the election of the number three, the independent højrefløjskandidat Miroslav Skoro, will probably prefer president Grabar-Kitarovic from the conservative HDZ, above Milanovic of the social democratic party, SDP.

At Sunday's elections has Milanovic scored 29,5 percent of the vote to 26,7 percent for Grabar-Kitarovic.

Højrefløjskandidaten Miroslav Skoro, who is a popular singer in Croatia, has scored 24,3 percent of the votes.

- Skoros højrefløjsvælgere will probably not support Milanovic, as Grabar-Kitarovic seems to be able to count with a larger group of potential voters in the next round of elections, says political analyst Davor Gjenero.

the Post of president has largely ceremonial in nature in Croatia. But a victory for either HDZ or SDP, which are the two largest parties, can give a clue on which way the wind will blow at legislative elections in 2020.

the 51-year-old Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic became Croatia's first female president in 2015.

In the election campaign, she has tried to stick to the voters, which could otherwise be likely to vote for Miroslav Skoro, which is located further out on the right wing.

Since Skoro gave its vote in Sunday's elections, he called on croats to "do everything possible to bring Croatia back to the people".

/ritzau/Reuters