(ANSA-AFP) - ZAGREB, MAY 31 - The candidate of a leftist-green coalition Tomislav Tomasevic was elected Zagreb mayor Sunday, overwhelmingly defeating his right-wing rival in a runoff vote, near-complete official results showed. Tomasevic won more than 65 percent of the vote beating folk singer Miroslav Skoro, according to results from almost all polling stations. He will succeed longtime Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic, a popular but controversial politician, who died in February of a heart attack. Bandic, who ruled the Croatian capital for more than two decades, had been trailed by scandal for years including several corruption charges and investigations.

Tomasevic, a prominent activist, is seen as symbolic of a new generation of Croatian politicians without ties to either of two main political parties. Since Croatia's 1991 independence from Yugoslavia, power has been traded between the ruling conservative HDZ party and the main opposition Social Democrats.

Tomasevic, 39, campaigned with pledges to eradicate cronyism and the "corruption octopus" in the capital. (ANSA-AFP).