In the run up to the 2009–10 presidential race, SDP held a primary election for the very first time, in which party nominees Ljubo Jurčić and Ivo Josipović ran. Josipović won the primary by some two-thirds of the vote. Josipović later won the 2009–10 election with 60% of the vote in the second round in front of former SDP member and populist Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić and was officially inaugurated on 18 February 2010.
