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One is a former amateur boxer and veteran politician whose populist messages have won support, the other is an academic and scholar who is having a hard time establishing himself in politics.
Zoran Milanovic
Intelligent and purposeful but also often seen as short-tempered and arrogant, Milanovic won 49 percent of the vote in the first round, making him an almost certain candidate for a second five-year term.
In recent years, Milanovic has increasingly used populist and insulting rhetoric to criticise the European Union and local officials.
The law graduate, who is among the best students of his generation and is still a skilled orator, has been one of Croatia's most dominant political figures for nearly two decades.
A career diplomat in the foreign ministry during the country's war of independence in the 1990s, he later worked in Zagreb's EU and NATO mission in Brussels.
He entered politics in 1999, joining the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SDP), a former communist party, and became its leader in 2007. From 2011 to 2016, Milanović was prime minister.
But his government, which oversaw Croatia's entry into the EU in 2013, failed to implement much-needed reforms, leading to economic stagnation.
After the SPD lost the election, Milanović stepped down as leader in 2016 and retired from politics to work as a consultant.
Three years later, he returned to the political scene as the SPD's presidential candidate.
Milanovic, 58, sparked a political scandal earlier this year when he tried to become prime minister during parliamentary elections in April.
During his winter presidential campaign, Milanovic, who sparred in his 20s but never boxed competitively, largely managed to keep his explosive temper in check.
Milanovic has vowed to be a bulwark against the complete domination of his longtime rival Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic's conservative HDZ party, which has been in power since 2016.
"Croatia will not be a country where one man decides everything," he said on Facebook, referring to Plenkovic.
Milanovic is married and has two sons.
Dragan Primorac
The doctor and scientist entered politics in the early 2000s when he was minister of science and education in the HDZ-led government, and joined the party in 2007.
A paediatrician by training and an expert in genetics and forensic science, Primorac became known as one of the pioneers of DNA analysis in Croatia and helped identify war victims whose remains were found in mass graves in the 1990s.
In 2009, he was the first person to identify the victims of the massacre. Primorac ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2009.
During his absence from the political arena, Primorac has mainly been engaged in academic work and has lectured at universities in the US and China, as well as at home in Croatia.
This year he launched his presidential campaign in the hope of returning to the stage.
Although he is not a member of the HDP, the party stood behind him.
Primorac's campaign has largely focused on attacks on Milanovic while trying to highlight his commitment to family values and patriotism.
Critics have accused Primorac, 59, of lacking political charisma and accused him of serving as an attack dog for the HDP to attack Milanovic.
Despite HDZ's backing, Primorac failed to rally the party base behind his campaign.
After securing nearly 20 percent of the vote during the first round of voting, Primorac stepped up his rhetoric and urged voters not to let Croatia "turn red again," citing the communist past of the rival SPD.
He is married and has two daughters. | BGNES
