ZAGREB (Reuters) ? Croatia voted on Sunday in an election likely to shift power to the centre-left opposition on a mandate to overhaul the Adriatic country's flagging economy before it joins the European Union in 2013.
Voters will almost certainly punish the ruling conservative HDZ -- Croatia's dominant party since independence in 1991 -- for a string of corruption scandals and rising unemployment.
Polls suggest power will pass to an opposition bloc known as Kukuriku ('cock-a-doodle-doo') and led by 45-year-old former diplomat Zoran Milanovic of the Social Democrats (SDS).
The next government will have to act fast to trim state spending and avert a potential credit rating downgrade.
"I believe the new government will act decisively in doing everything to get us out of this state crisis," said Croatian President Ivo Josipovic.
Milanovic has told Croats they will have to work "more, harder, longer" to turn the economy around before the country of 4.3 million people becomes the second ex-Yugoslav republic to join the EU in July 2013.
"I have a decent pension but I look around me and I see poverty everywhere," 74-year-old pensioner Milan Grgurek said after voting in the capital, Zagreb. "Whoever comes to power ... will have to carry out reforms."
Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia in a 1991-95 war, and has seen its economy boom over the past decade on the back of foreign borrowing and waves of tourism to its stunning Adriatic coastline.
But growth ground to a halt when the global financial crisis hit in 2009 and Croatia has been the slowest among central and south-east European countries to crawl back out of recession.
CORRUPTION
Unemployment stood at 17.4 percent in October and thousands of employees work without pay. Lack of liquidity has paralysed many local businesses and overall foreign debt has surpassed 100 percent of gross domestic product.
A dozen Croats interviewed by three national television channels on Sunday almost unanimously said they expected more jobs and higher salaries over the next four years.
Trust in the governing elite has also been hit hard by a string of graft scandals mainly involving the HDZ.
Investigations have landed former prime minister and HDZ leader Ivo Sanader in court, and spread to other senior party officials accused of running slush funds.
"I want change, a society without corruption," said a 31-year-old music editor at a Zagreb radio station who gave his name as Krunoslav.
"I'm still an optimist and believe it will get better in the next four years," he said. "Besides, in two years we'll be in the EU."
The anti-corruption drive under Prime Minister Jadranko Kosor, HDZ leader, helped secure Croatia a date for EU accession, but there are concerns over the parlous state of its economy.
After voting, Milanovic told reporters: "We expect victory, like anybody competing for the trust of the citizens."
This week he told Reuters the state budget for 2012 would be in place by the end of March, in time to avert a credit downgrade.
Kosor said she hoped voters would "choose those who will continue with an uncompromising fight against corruption."
Voting ends at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT), when exit polls will follow. An official, preliminary count is expected by midnight.
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