2019–20 Croatian presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Croatia on 22 December 2019. Social Democratic Party nominee Zoran Milanović narrowly defeated incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in a second round of voting.

As no candidate received a majority of all votes (including blank, invalid and uncast ballots), a second round took place on 5 January 2020 between the two candidates with the highest number of votes in the first round. They were the seventh presidential elections since the first direct ones were held in 1992.

The decision to call the elections was made by the Croatian Government during its session on 14 November 2019. Potential candidates were required to gather at least 10,000 signatures from Croatian citizens who have reached the age of 18 in order for their candidacy to become official and for their name to appear on the ballot. They were allocated a time frame of 12 days to accomplish this and thus had until midnight local time on 3 December 2019 to present their signatures to the State Electoral Commission. A total of twelve candidates submitted signatures by the deadline and the commission then proceeded to verify the signatures within the following 48 hours, presenting a final list of eleven approved candidates on 5 December 2019.

In the first round of the election, which was held on 22 December 2019, former prime minister Zoran Milanović finished in first place with a relative majority of 29.55% of all votes cast. He was followed closely by incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, who received 26.65% of the vote, and by Miroslav Škoro, who acquired 24.45% of the vote. As no candidate managed to reach the required percentage of the vote to win outright in the first round, a run-off election took place on 5 January 2020 between the two candidates with the most votes in the first round: Milanović and Grabar-Kitarović. Zoran Milanović won the second round with 52.66% of the vote and was thus elected the 5th President of Croatia since its independence in 1991, while Grabar-Kitarović became the second (consecutive) Croatian president not to have been reelected for a second term, after Ivo Josipović (2010-2015). Furthermore, the number of votes received by Zoran Milanović, in regard to both the first (562,783) and the second (1,034,170) round of the election, is the lowest of any victorious presidential candidate to date. On the other hand, the number of votes (507,628) and the percentage of the vote (26.65%) acquired by Grabar-Kitarović in the first round is the lowest for any Croatian president.