Croatia votes in election showdown between president and prime minister

Croatians are voting in a parliamentary election following a campaign centred on a bitter rivalry between the president and prime minister (Darko Vojinovic/AP)

Croatians are voting in a parliamentary election following a campaign centred on a bitter rivalry between the president and prime minister that has sparked a political crisis in the small European Union and Nato member.

Wednesday’s ballot pits the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic against an alliance of centrist and left-wing parties informally led by populist President Zoran Milanovic and his Social Democratic Party (SDP).