Croatia's tenth parliamentary election began at 11 p.m. on Friday Croatian time as polling stations opened in three Australian cities, State Electoral Commission vice president Damir Kontrec said.

Polling stations opened in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne, while another one at the Croatian Consulate in Perth opened at 1 a.m. Croatian time on Saturday, Kontrec said, adding that 2,800 voters had registered to vote from Australia.

The one polling station in Beijing opened at the same time as in Perth, while the one at the Croatian Embassy in Tokyo opened at midnight on Friday.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, voting will take place at 42 more countries over Saturday and Sunday, in cities with Croatian diplomatic and consular missions where Croatian citizens who do not reside in Croatia will elect three of the 151 members of parliament.

There are 112 polling stations abroad, of which 45 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 11 in Germany, four in the US, three in Italy, and two in Serbia, Montenegro, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and Canada each.

The last polling station to open will be in Los Angeles at 4 p.m. on Saturday Croatian time. Almost 185,000 Croatians abroad have registered to vote in the election, most of them in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (50,786).