In the second round, Mrak Taritaš has a small advantage over Bandić.
Although current Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić would win the most votes in the first round of voting, he would not win enough votes for the outright win. In the second round, he would be joined by Anka Mrak Taritaš (HNS), who would win more votes that him and become the new Mayor of Zagreb. These are the results of a poll conducted by Promocija Plus agency from 21 to 24 February. The survey was commissioned by HNS, reports 24sata.hr on March 1, 2017.
Political opponents usually do not believe polls commissioned by their competitors. However, in the same poll commissioned by HNS in November, Milan Bandić was the winner, followed by independent candidate Sandra Švaljek, while Mrak Taritaš was third.
The latest poll was conducted before SDP apparently decided to support Mrak Taritaš instead of running its own candidate. Švaljek is now third with 24 percent support, behind Mrak Taritaš with 27 percent. The HNS candidate has gained more than nine percent of support since November.
The survey was conducted before Švaljek unveiled her seven-member expert team and launched her campaign in which she will emphasize that she is the only independent candidate who can bring change to Zagreb.
Current Mayor Bandić is still the favourite in the first round with 28 percent of support, but he is well aware that this will probably be his most difficult electoral battle until now. In the last eight years, since direct elections of mayors were introduced, he was always the winner of polls for the second round.
In this poll, Mirando Mrsić was included as SDP’s potential candidate, and he received 5.4 percent of voter support. Bruna Esih, who has not yet confirmed that she will run (probably as an independent candidate supported by rightwing voters) is at 5.1 percent. Andrija Mikulić was included as HDZ’s potential candidate and he received 3.7 percent of support, the same as Ivan Pernar from Živi Zid.
As for the second round of voting, the poll shows that Anka Mrak Taritaš would win 52.4 percent of votes, and Milan Bandić 47.6 percent.
MOST has decided that it will have its own candidate for Mayor of Zagreb, Marko Sladoljev, a teacher of religious studies and a member of Parliament. He was not included in the poll, but MOST hopes that he will disrupt the existing balance of power. “The list of candidates for the City Assembly, which will also be led by Sladoljev, will offer something completely different from all other parties”, said a MOST representative.
The election of 51 members of the City Assembly will also be interesting. A mayor needs at least 26 members to be able to govern the city in an effective manner, but it seems that no one will be able to rule without a wide coalition.
