The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) on Sunday held its intra-party elections for the leaders of municipal, city and county branches, and the branches in the capital city of Zagreb and in the biggest Croatian Adriatic city of Split elected new leaders.

Thus, the HDZ branch in Zagreb will be led by Mislav Herman, a gynecologist, who succeeded Andrija Mikulic at this position. Herman was the sole candidate for the Zagreb HDZ president in Sunday’s elections.

The HDZ branch is Split will be led by Vice Mihanovic, the head of the Port of Split, who succeeded Petar Skoric who was at the helm of the local HDZ branch in the last eight years. MIhanovic was the only candidate for the post.

In Rijeka, the two new candidates ran for this position, and the winner was Josip Ostrogovic who mustered 349 votes while his rival Kristjan Stanicic won 273 votes. The former HDZ leader in Rijeka, Lucijan Vukelic, did not rerun for the position.

In Osijek, Ivan Radic was re-elected for that city.

The party’s 209,271 members were eligible to vote according to the one member, one vote principle at 576 polling stations across the country, including 17 in Zagreb. If necessary, a runoff will be held on December 6. The vote was the continuation of intra-party elections which began on March 15 with the re-election of president Andrej Plenkovic and were put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.