At midnight on Friday, Croatia entered a two-day election silence ahead of the second round of the presidential election, scheduled for Sunday.

A total of 3,769,598 voters will decide whether the incumbent president Zoran Milanovic, the candidate of the SDP and its partners, or Dragan Primorac, the candidate of the HDZ party and its partners, will serve as the Croatian president for the next five years.

Election silence will be in effect throughout Saturday and Sunday until 7:00 PM, when polling stations – 6,755 of them in Croatia and abroad – close.

Although the law does not prescribe penalties for violating election silence during presidential elections, the State Electoral Commission (DIP) urges compliance.

During this period, all election campaigning is prohibited; the publication of polls, estimates, or unofficial election results is not allowed; voters should not be contacted via phone calls, SMS messages, or emails, and candidates and their supporters must refrain from posting new promotional content on social media and platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, X, TikTok, or others. This includes statuses, video clips, images, or comments shared publicly or on private profiles.

DIP also called on the media and publishers to respect election silence by refraining from publishing photos or statements of candidates and broadcasting press conferences, public events, or public addresses of candidates, regardless of whether the topic directly pertains to election campaigns or other subjects.

Violations of election silence can be reported to DIP at [email protected].

Croatia’s president was not elected in the first round on 29 December, as none of the eight candidates secured the required majority of votes (50% plus one vote).

Milanovic won 49.09% of the votes while Primorac secured 19.35% of the votes.