UPDATE 1-Croats vote to elect new president in tight race

Croatia is voting on Sunday to elect a new president in a race between candidates from the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the main opposition party the Social Democrats.

In the first round two weeks ago, the Social Democrats' candidate and former prime minister Zoran Milanovic beat 11 other candidates to come first with 29.6% of votes. He finished ahead of the incumbent president, the HDZ's Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic with 26.7%. The president's role is largely ceremonial in Croatia. The head of state cannot veto laws, but has a say in foreign policy, defense and security matters.

Opinion polls and analysts suggest that the race will be tight, although some give a slight advantage to Grabar-Kitarovic. "I believe that (Grabar-Kitarovic) has somewhat bigger chances as the Croatian electorate is generally slightly right-leaning. In any case, this election is a kind of preliminary stage for the parliamentary election later this year," said political analyst Zarko Puhovski.

Croatia, which took over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union on Jan. 1, is set to hold the next parliamentary election in the autumn. Ballots close at 1800 GMT and the first preliminary results will be announced at 1900 GMT.

The State Electoral Commission said turnout had reached 19% by 1030 GMT. Milanovic, who was the prime minister from 2011 to 2015, ran his election campaign on promises that he would fight corruption that he said had intensified since he left power and the conservatives took over.