Polling places at which Croatian citizens voted for the seventh Croatian parliament closed at 7pm on Sunday. According to information from 6,170 of the 6,572 regular polling places, the turnout by 4pm was 46.06 per cent or 1,573,556 voters.

There were 4,092,323 eligible voters, including 374,800 members of national minorities who were entitled to elect eight MPs in Constituency No. 12.

In Constituency No. 11, in which Croatian citizens without residence in Croatia can elect three MPs from 15 party slates, the vote closes on December 5 at 4am CET. It began on December 3 because of the time difference. A total of 411,758 Croatians are eligible to vote abroad.

A total of 313 slates and 58 candidates of national minorities ran in the election. Of the 313 slates approved by the State Election Commission, 285 were party slates, including 204 single-party and 81 coalition slates, and 28 were independent slates. Slates were submitted by 63 political parties of the 116 registered in Croatia. A total of 4,359 candidates ran for 151 seats in parliament, including 34.96 per cent of women.

Seventy-six seats are required to form a parliamentary majority.

The State Election Commission (DIP) will release first incomplete election results after midnight, although as of 9pm it will release updated results every 15 minutes on its web site.

Exit polls show Kukuriku coalition wins 83 seats, HDZ 40

According to exit polls, the centre-left coalition led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has won 83 seats in the seventh Croatian parliament in Sunday's vote, while the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has won 40 seats.

The exit polls were conducted by the Ipsos Puls agency for the three national TV stations HTV, RTL and Nova TV and their results were broadcast after the closure of polling stations at 1900 hours.

The exit polls covered 30,000 voters who cast their ballots at 400 polling stations in ten constituencies.

The exit polls show that the five percent election threshold has also been passed by the Croatian Labour Party (six seats), the Croatian Democratic Alliance of Slavonia and Baranja, HDSSB (six seats), the Croatian Peasant Party, HSS (2), the Independent List of retired Catholic priest Ivan Grubisic (2), and the right-wing alliance led by Ruza Tomasic (1).

The State Election Commission (DIP) will be releasing early election returns on its web site (www.izbori.hr) as of 2100 hours, and returns collected by 2330 hours will be announced at a news conference at midnight.

A total of 4,504,081 million people in Croatia and abroad were eligible to vote in the elections.