People's Coalition to win more seats in Croatian early election:poll

Croatian centre-left coalition, the People's Coalition, would win more seats in the coming election, set for Sept.11, but not enough to have an absolute majority in the parliament, the latest poll said on Monday.

The poll, conducted by Croatia's RTL television, said the People's Coalition, led by the biggest opposition Croatian Social Democratic Party (SDP) would win 62 seats, six more than the last election which was held in Nov.2015.

It rival Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the main party in the government which fell in June, would have 58 mandates, one less than the last election, the poll said.

While the third party MOST would get 12 seats, 7 less than last year, it added.

The SDP's president Zoran Milanovic won 33 percent of the supports and Andrej Plenkovic, the new HDZ leader has 27 percent, while the third place was taken by Zagreb's major Milan Bandic, the poll showed.

Although SDP would be biggest winner, but it has to get the supports from some smaller parties to gather at least 76 seats in 151-seat parliament for forming a government.

Analysts here did not ruled out the likelihood of a grand coalition between SDP and HDZ, but believed the possibility was lower.

The HDZ could form a coalition with MOST again despite their leaders' strong opposition, they said.

HDZ formed a coalition government with the junior party Most following the last election in 2015. The government stepped down following a no-confidence vote in June after it was in power for only five months. An early election was called. Endit