VOA标准英语2010年-Croatia Votes for New President With E

Croats begin voting in decisive round of presidential elections with opinion polls predicting narrow victory for left-leaning candidate Ivo Josipovic.

Stefan Bos | Budapest 10 January 2010

Croatia's presidential candidate Ivo Josipovic of the Social Democrats² casts his ballot³ at a polling station in Zagreb, Croatia, 10 Jan 2010

Voters in Croatia on Sunday will choose a new president who is expected to lead the Balkan nation into the European Union. The race is between a leftist intellectual who has pledged to fight high-level corruption⁴ and the populist mayor of Zagreb.     

Croats have begun voting in the decisive round of presidential elections with opinion polls predicting a narrow victory for left-leaning candidate Ivo Josipovic.

The 52-year-old bespectacled law professor and classical music composer, who is backed by the main opposition⁵ Social Democrats, won the first election round on December 27, with about one-third of the vote.

Josipovic has told Croatian television that he wants a return of integrity into politics amid international concerns over financial wrongdoing in Croatia. 

He pledges to tackle corruption and organized crime. Croatia has in his words to re-establish public trust in law enforcement institutions such as police, the courts and politics. Josipovic also wants to improve the general living conditions of people.     
 
Josipovic's challenger is the controversial mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandic, a former Social Democrat¹ who has been criticized for populist policies.

Local media accuse Bandic and the city administration he controls of links
to corruption scandals.

But Bandic has said no charges were ever pressed against him.

He recently received backing from the influential⁶ Catholic Church and is popular among 400,000 Croatian voters living abroad, mostly in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he was born.
 
Despite controversies⁷, Mayor Bandic, who is 54, says he can be a good president, citing his experience as major of Croatia's capital.

Mayor Bandic tells Croatian television that while being mayor of Zagreb in the last 10 years he did much to promote Croatia. He adds he did everything to "promote Zagreb as a European metropolis⁸." Bandic favors European Union membership for Croatia. He describes the EU as an organization with high social standards and prosperity which could help provide a better future for his Balkan nation.     

Both presidential candidates support Croatia's aim to join the EU next year or in 2012. But European diplomats⁹ say Ivo Josipovic is more likely to support the government's new anti-corruption efforts, a key condition for membership.

Any new president can also expect Western pressure to mend relations with
neighboring Serbia, another EU candidate country. Serbia is furious that outgoing Croatian President Stipe Mesic on Friday visited Kosovo, which declared independence but is viewed as a Serbian province by Belgrade.

Additionally Serbia has filed a lawsuit¹⁰ this week at the World Court accusing Croatia of genocide against Serbs during their Balkan war of the 1990s. It was a response to a similar one that Croatia filed against Serbia over a decade ago.

The war began after Croatia declared itself independent from what was Yugoslavia in 1991. It is not yet clear which steps Croatia's next president can take to improve relations with its neighbor.

First official results of Sunday's presidential poll are expected by early Monday.  Nearly four-and-a-half million people can participate in the voting.

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

4 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

7 controversies   

争论

参考例句：

• We offer no comment on these controversies here. 对于这些争议，我们在这里不作任何评论。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• The controversies surrounding population growth are unlikely to subside soon. 围绕着人口增长问题的争论看来不会很快平息。 来自辞典例句

8 metropolis   

n.首府；大城市

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a metropolis in China.上海是中国的大都市。
• He was dazzled by the gaiety and splendour of the metropolis.大都市的花花世界使他感到眼花缭乱。

9 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。