Josipovic wins Croatia's presidential run-off vote

Legal scholar and leftist opposition candidate Ivo Josipovic has won Croatia's presidency in an election run-off Sunday, election officials say.

With nearly all votes tallied, Social Democrat Josipovic won 60.3 per cent of Sunday's votes, while popular Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic received 39.7 per cent, the Electoral Commission says.

Josipovic vowed to fight crime and corruption and to bring honesty and justice to Croatia. A professor of international law, he has been a legislator since 2003 and has a largely untainted resumé, but even his supporters acknowledge that he lacks charisma.

Josipovic is considered pro-Western and will likely support Croatia's efforts to gain entry to the European Union, possibly in 2011 or 2012. The country joined NATO in April.

Last month, Josipovic received 32.4 per cent of the votes while Bandic, who ran as an independent, had 14.8 per cent. Since no candidate got more than 50 per cent of the vote, the top two finishers had to face each other in a run-off.

Josipovic succeeds Stipe Mesic, who helped reform Croatia from a nationalist state into pro-Western democracy.