Mozemo party presidential candidate Ivana Kekin said on Thursday that neither she nor her husband had ever spoken on the phone to anyone pretending to be someone else. She added that in previous election campaigns there had never been such tricks as a phone call from the controversial businessman Nikica Jelavic.

At a press conference, Kekin spoke about the meeting between her husband, musician Mile Kekin, and Jelavic in a café. Mile Kekin wrote about it on Facebook and explained that he had expected to meet the footballer Nikica Jelavic, as the person who had contacted him on 5 November had introduced himself as such.

“This is not a normal campaign”

“I move in the same circles I’ve always moved in. These are not normal things; this is not a normal campaign. As far as I know, things like this have never happened in political campaigns before, and we’ve been through dirty campaigns,” said Ivana Kekin.

About her husband, she said that as a musician, he has several meetings with different people every week. “His work takes place in bars, as he said himself… It would not have occurred to me in a hundred years that this was a plot involving (entrepreneur) Nikica Jelavic, but you can say I’m naive.”

The meeting between her husband and Jelavic was commented on Wednesday by the presidential candidate of the ruling HDZ party, Dragan Primorac, who said that anyone who aspires to the office of head of state must have a clean record and not be involved in scandals or corruption.

“With his surreal statement yesterday, Primorac revealed more about himself than in the past three months of the election campaign,” Kekin criticised the ruling party. “When has the HDZ ever gone to the police after an unwanted meeting with controversial businessmen?” she asked.

Inflammatory TikTok video also reported to the police

After Jelavic himself spoke out and called on the Kekin couple to tell the truth about the controversial event, the presidential candidate claimed that his involvement removed any doubt as to whether it was a bizarre incident or a set-up.

In addition to this case, Kekin also reported a video on TikTok to the police, labelling it inflammatory as it spread false information about her financial situation and even revealed her home address.

“The police told me that this falls under the criminal offence of defamation, which I can pursue with a private prosecution. Unfortunately, we as a country cannot get information from TikTok about who is behind a particular profile. The police can send a request, but if TikTok does not respond, and they usually don’t, we can not know who is responsible,” she said.