ZAGREB, 11 July 2022 - The Centar party's candidate Ivica Puljak on Sunday scored a landslide victory in the Split mayoral runoff, winning 27,496 votes, while his opponent Zoran Đogaš, nominated by the HDZ and the HSS, won 13,243, according to the State Electoral Commission.
Puljak and his deputies Bojan Ivošević and Antonio Kuzmanić will run the city until the next regular local election in spring 2025.
The government called a snap election in Split after Puljak, Ivošević, and Kuzmanić resigned on 8 April, having lost their partners' support in the City Council.
The turnout in the runoff was 28.36%.
In his first address after the victory, Puljak said the people of Split had sent a clear message that his team's advocacy of order and public interest was right, and that the city would be run differently than in the past 30 years.
Citizens have decided that Split should be a city without privileged ones, with public tenders and not clientelism, he added.
Puljak said he would begin talks with the Social Democratic Party and Bridge on Monday already on forming a majority in the City Council. The only thing Centar wants from the cooperation is that there is no dividing of the loot, he added.
Puljak said his communication with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to date had been professional and that he hoped it would stay so.
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