Polls have opened in Croatia today to witness a tight election for the country's next president.

Voters can chose between the incumbent conservative Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and her centre left-wing rival, Zoran Milanović, in what analysts defines as an "unpredictable race". Indeed no clear favourite has emerged from opinion polls.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is a former Croatian ambassador to the United States. She is running for her second term as the candidate for the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which is allied to the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament.

The 51-year-old is the country’s first post-independence female president in 2015. She is also the youngest president, a devoute Catholic who opposes same-sex marriage.

Her opponent is Zoran Milanović, former prime minister of Croatia and leader of the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP), part of the Party of European Socialists in the European parliament.