[ELECTION 2005] Upset!

According to exit poll done by RTL Televizija, first round of Croatian presidential is a major upset. Stipe Mesić (Stipe Mesic) failed to win in the first round. However, the runner-up who won the second place is US-based businessman Boris Mikšić (Boris Miksic).

HRT, on the other hand, reports, based on Puls field survey, that Mesić managed to cross 50% boundary, but again the big news is Mikšić with cca. 20 %.

Apparently, voters used this opportunity to express their displeasure with too familiar face of Croatian politics and gave their support to a new face.

UPDATE:

Results of PULS exit poll conducted on 220 polling stations at 17,000 sample at 17:00 CET:

Stipe Mesić (Stipe Mesic) – 51.84 %

Boris Mikšić (Boris Miksic) – 19.54 %

Jadranka Kosor – 17.06 %

Đurđa Adlešić (Djurdja Adlesic) – 3.03 %

Slaven Letica – 2.41 %

Ivić Pašalić (Ivic Pasalic) – 1.37 %

Miroslav "Ćiro" Blažević (Miroslav "Ciro" Blazevic) – 0.86 %

Miroslav Rajh – 0.75 %

Anto Kovačević (Anto Kovacevic) – 0.6 %

Doris Košta (Doris Kosta) – 0.34 %

Miroslav Kešer (Miroslav Keser) – 0.3 %

Tomislav Petrak – 0.1 %

UPDATE:

Ratko Maček (Ratko Macek), chief spokesman of HDZ, gave statement to RTL Televizija. He claims that his party's candidate will manage to slip into second round of elections.

Source of Maček's optimism might be in some 400,000 expatriate Croats who are eligible to vote and who weren't covered by exit polls. Most of them are concentrated in Bosnia and this area is known for its strong support for HDZ.