President Zoran Milanovic visited the town of Samobor on Sunday, the third day of collecting signatures for his candidacy in the presidential elections, where the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) helped him collect signatures.

Dragan Primorac, who is supported by the ruling HDZ party, visited the Zagreb suburb of Sesvetska Sela on the first Sunday of Advent to take part in religious rites. In his speech to the press, he said that his team had already collected over 60,000 signatures.

Selak-Raspudic called on voters not to scatter their votes

Ivana Kekin from the Mozemo party continued her presidential campaign in Zagreb, where she expressed satisfaction that her party has so far collected over 1,000 donations from ordinary citizens.

She said that the fact that they have collected almost €30,000 and the average donation is €27, while the most frequent donation is €10, shows that they are not backed by big sponsors, but by ordinary citizens.

Independent candidate Marija Selak-Raspudic called on voters not to distribute their votes to the candidates who have no chance of winning the run-off, mentioning Primorac in this context.

She said she was the only independent presidential candidate. Selak-Raspudic visited some residential areas in the centre and east of Zagreb and toured the town of Zapresic.

12 days to collect 10,000 voter signatures

Other candidates continued their campaign in the run-up to the presidential elections scheduled for 29 December.

Presidential candidates have 12 days to collect 10,000 voter signatures to qualify for the ballot, and that deadline began last Friday. So far, 13 people have announced their candidacy, with each voter only allowed to support one candidacy with their signature.

All Croatian citizens who have reached the voting age can support a candidate by signing their nomination, but each voter may only sign for one candidate.

The deadline for submitting presidential candidacies to the State Electoral Commission (DIP) is midnight on 10 December.

The run-off election is scheduled for 12 January 2025

After receiving the nominations, the DIP has 48 hours to verify the signatures and publish the official list of presidential candidates. Once the list has been announced, the official election campaign begins, which lasts until midnight on 27 December, followed by a day of election silence.

During the election weekend, any form of advertising, publication or estimation of results is prohibited until the polling stations close.

The President of the Republic is elected on a first-past-the-post basis, i.e. the winner must receive more than 50% of all votes cast.

If no candidate achieves this in the first round on 29 December, the two best candidates will proceed to a run-off election scheduled for 12 January 2025.