Opposition conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has won most votes in Sunday’s general election but remained short of outright majority in the 151-seat parliament, HINA reported.

With 99.79% of ballots counted, the HDZ-led Patriotic Coalition has won 59 seats.

The Croatia Grows coalition, led by the ruling centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP), came second with 56 seats, the Croatian news agency said.

The “biggest surprise” in the vote overshadowed by the migration crisis in Europe is the alliance of independent candidates, Most (‘brigde’ in Croatian), which will have 19 seats.

Five smaller parties have won a total of nine seats. A quota of eight seats is allocated to ethnic minorities under Croatia's election law.  

The tight result means it could take weeks of negotiations to form a new government following Croatia’s first general election since joining the European Union in 2013. The new government will be under pressure to push through reforms in a country slowly emerging from six years of recession and grappling with the transit of tens of thousands of migrants.

Croatia’s President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic will begin consultations on a prime minister-designate after receiving complete election results from the State Electoral Commission, which won’t be possible before next week because voting has to be repeated at seven polling stations on November 15, HINA said.

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