ZAGREB, Croatia ? Croatians voted Sunday in a parliamentary election expected to unseat long-dominant conservatives and empower a center-left coalition just as the country prepares to join the European Union.
The winner also will inherit a nation where social discontent is rising due to declining living standards and high unemployment ? struggles that come amid the backdrop of a broader European economic crisis.
The vote for Croatia's 151-seat parliament pits the governing center-right Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, against a coalition of left-leaning parties. The latter has led recent opinion polls.
Croatia is to sign an accession treaty with the EU next Friday. The country of 4.3 million is on track to join the EU in July 2013 as the bloc's 28th member.
The conservatives have ruled Croatia since its 1990s war for independence from the former Yugoslavia, except for the 2001-2003 period, when the center-left coalition took over.
But HDZ has been embroiled in corruption scandals, including alleged involvement in illegal fundraising for previous elections, that have diminished its popularity. Its former leader and ex-Prime Minister Ivo Sanader is on trial for allegedly pocketing millions in bribes before he abruptly resigned in 2009.
Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, the current conservative leader, has pushed a platform appealing to Croatian's sense of patriotism.
"In the European Union, most of the governments are from the same family of parties as we are, the Christian democratic parties," Kosor told The Associated Press. "That is why it is important that HDZ runs our government once we become an EU member, because it is extremely important that you are among the majority at the table where decisions are made."
Zoran Milanovic, the leader of the center-left so-called "Kurkuriku" coalition ? Croatian for the "cock-a-doodle-doo" rooster cry ? has run a relatively low-key campaign.
"The easier part is winning the election," Milanovic said. "Reforming the country will be much more difficult."
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Associated Press writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed.
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