LEAD: Polls close in Croatian election

Dec 4, 2011, 18:04 GMT

Zagreb/Belgrade - Voting ended Sunday evening in Croatian parliamentary elections, with the opposition coalition led by the Social Democratic party expected to defeat the ruling conservatives for only the second time since the country's independence in 1991.

The turnout by 4 pm (1500 GMT) was 2.1 per cent down on 2007, when final turnout reached 57.3 per cent.

Opinion polls predict that Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) will cede power to the opposition coalition, called Kukuruku (Cock-a-doodle), after a restaurant in which it was agreed.

The name of the coalition also symbolizez a new dawn, and the cry of a cock announcing it.

Kosor is due to sign the accession treaty with the European Union in Brussels on December 9.

But if the polls are correct, it will be her rival, SPD leader Zoran Milanovic, who will formally lead the country to become the 28th member of the bloc in July 2013.

First unofficial projections are expected shortly after the voting ends.

The former Yugoslav republic declared independence in 1991, eventually winning it by 1995 after a protracted war.