[ELECTION 2005] Herzegovina Electing Croatian President?

Last time GONG, Croatian election watchdog NGO, made quite an embarrassment of itself by claiming the first round of presidential election to be regular only to discover dead people voting and other massive irregularities in Bosnian polling stations. This time they don't take anything for granted. They increased their presence at the polls and while the election still goes on, their reports are very different from the rosy pictures painted two weeks ago. According to those reports, there were instances of Croatian citizens with Croatian residence voting both in Bosnia and Croatia proper. There were also reports of hundreds of new voters being registered at the polling stations.

In the meantime, State Electoral Commission updated its data. At 16:00 CET the turnout was 39.84 %, which is 2 % lower compared to first round turnout.

At the same time, Radio 101 reports that the turnout in Mostar, capital of Herzegovina is three times higher than on the first round. There are reports of large cues at the polling stations in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

These numbers don't look good for Stipe Mesić (Stipe Mesic). Although he had a massive lead two weeks ago, Kosor slightly improved her poll numbers after the debates and her voters, being more disciplined and more inclined to vote, are going to increase her percentage with the low turnout. High turnout in Bosnia-Herzegovina, especially in Herzegovina, is going to make the race much tighter than anyone could have imagined.