Former Mayor Željko Kerum seems to be the slight favourite to return to the Town Hall.
With just five days to go until the first round of local elections on 21 May, polls show that former Mayor Željko Kerum is the slight favourite to win against his competition, reports dnevnik.hr on May 16, 2017.
According to the poll, Kerum would win 25.7 percent of votes in the first round, which is 2.5 percentage points more than in the previous poll a few weeks ago. Kerum has now overtaken HDZ’s candidate Andro Krstulović Opara, who is currently supported by 21.3 percent of voters, which is 3 percentage points less than in the previous poll.
Marijana Puljak, the candidate of the liberal Pametno party, is currently at 19.6 percent, while SDP-HNS candidate Aida Batarelo has 9.5 percent of support. They are followed by Ante Čikotić (MOST) with 6.6 percent, Dragan Markovina (New Left-Workers’ Front) with 3.6 percent, independent candidate Goran Jugović with 3.1 percent, and other candidates with 1.5 percent of support.
It is quite obvious that the mayor will be elected in the second round two weeks later, given that no candidate will win the majority of votes in the first round. According to the poll, Kerum would have the support of 39 percent of voters in the second round, while Krstulović Opara is closely behind with 38.6 percent. So, the difference between Opara and Kerum is only 0.4 percent, which is well within the statistical margin of error.
If Marijana Puljak were to enter the second round with Kerum, he would win 45.3 percent of votes, while Puljak would get 43.1 percent.
As for the Split Town Council, HDZ’s candidate list is in the lead with 20 percent, followed by Kerum’s coalition list with 18.7 percent. Pametno is third with 16.6 percent, followed by SDP-HNS with 12.4 percent, MOST with 8.1 percent, and the New Left-Worker’s Front coalition with 3.8 percent.
The poll was conducted from 11 to 14 May.
Željko Kerum is a highly controversial and a rather flamboyant businessman who was first elected for Split Mayor in 2009, when he won 40 percent of votes in the first round and 58 percent in the second. In 2013, he won 19 percent of votes in the first round and did not qualify for the second round.
