Croatia's conservatives were poised for a re-election victory Sunday, an exit poll showed, putting the HDZ party on a strong footing for talks to build a government that will face the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The party, which has dominated Croatia for most of the country's nearly 30-year independence, fell short of an absolute majority but outperformed its main rival by a distance. 

According to Ipsos agency, HDZ was slated to pick up 61 seats in the 151-member house, followed by 44 for the centre-left coalition led by the Social Democrats (SDP).

As the party heads into coalition talks, the big question is whether it will tie up with the new nationalist 'Homeland Movement', which the poll forecast for third place with some 16 seats.

Hanging over the election was the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, with Croatia's tourism-dependent economy on course for its steepest decline in decades.

HDZ touted its relatively successful containment of the country's virus outbreak, with an official tally of roughly 110 deaths and 3,000 infections.

Read more: Croatians voting amid virus concerns

The party had also presented prime minister Andrej Plenkovic, a former MEP with strong backing from Brussels, as a safe pair of hands to navigate the economic downturn. 

Ahead of the poll, 50-year-old Plenkovic dismissed his rivals as ill-prepared, telling voters that now is the time for "serious choices and not for political quackery."

Yet the SDP, led by 40-year-old Davor Bernardic, accused the government of endangering citizens by "rushing" to hold the elections before the economic pain set in.

The weak results of the SDP's coalition were the biggest surprise of the night, after pre-election polls had consistently put SDP neck-and-neck with HDZ. 

"SDP is the loser of the elections," said political analyst Zarko Puhovski.

Their camp was also hurt by the rise of a new green-leftist group, Mozemo, who was positioned for fourth alongside the ultra-conservative Most party with around 8 seats each, according to Ipsos.

Corruption and emigration 

HDZ's outgoing environment minister Tomislav Coric said he expected the party to find coalition partners in the coming days.

There are "political options that are close to us from both ideological and program point of view," he told local television. 

While the pandemic dominated the campaign, older problems like corruption and high emigration were also topics of concern. 

Voters were advised to wear masks and bring their own pens to polling stations after the European Union country recorded a new uptick in coronavirus infections in recent weeks. 

But the health situation did not appear to dramatically dampen turnout, which, two-and-a-half hours before polls closed, was at 34 percent, just three points below the figure in the 2016 elections. 

Officials also paid home visits to collect the ballots of 500 people – some 10 percent of those in self-isolation – who requested to vote, while others infected with the virus could do so through a proxy.