Čović uses paid ad to call on all Croats in BiH to vote for 'our president'

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The second round of presidential elections in Croatia will be held on Sunday, January 5, 2020, with Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (HDZ) and Zoran Milanović (SDP) in contention.

Grabar-Kitarović is openly counting on the votes of voters from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and HDZ BiH and its president Dragan Čović are in charge of mobilization. Thus, Čović used a paid advertisement to call on all Croats to vote for Grabar-Kitarović on Sunday.

"HDZ BiH calls on all Croats in BiH to cast their vote in the elections on Sunday, January 5, 2020, for the candidate of HDZ Croatia, our president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović," reads the advertisement signed by HDZ BiH and Čović. 

In the first round of the presidential elections, the difference between Grabar-Kitarović and Milanović was 54,000 votes in favor of Milanović. The question is how the voters of other candidates will distribute their votes and whether they will turn out to vote at all. That is why Grabar-Kitarović desperately needs votes from BiH. 

According to official data, around 92,000 BiH Croats have the right to vote, but only about 24,000 voters exercised this right in the first round. 

As reported by Jutarnji list, HDZ members in BiH will allegedly resort to their standard strategy, organizing buses to transport voters. Crowds are also expected at some polling stations, with longer waits precisely because of this organized transport. However, it is possible that even this will not be enough and that voter turnout will be the same as in the first round.