Croatian parliamentary election, 2007

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Official Croatian 2007 parliamentary elections logo
Official Croatian 2007 parliamentary elections logo

Parliamentary elections to the Croatian Parliament were held on 25 November 2007 in Croatia and on 24 November and 25 November 2007 abroad.[1] To prevent possible electoral fraud, such as dead people voting abroad or people voting twice, the 400,000 Croatians outside Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina who were eligible to vote had to register no later than 14 days before the election. The campaign officially started on 3 November. The President of Croatia announced elections on 17 October and 14 days were allowed for candidate lists to be submitted.

In three locales, the election were repeated on 9 December 2007; while this could not change the final result as far as mandates are concerned, it meant the final result would only be known on 11 December 2007.[2]

Elections were held in 10 electoral districts inside Croatia (each providing 14 members of parliament),[3] one electoral district for Croatian citizens living abroad (with a maximum 12 members of parliament), and one electoral district for national minorities (8 members of parliament). Candidate lists have to win more than 5% of the votes in at least one electoral district in order to be represented in the parliament. 4,478,386 people in total were eligible to vote, 405,092 of whom are in the diaspora, 280,000 living in Bosnia-Herzegovina. [4][5]

Contents

[edit] 12 electorates in Croatia

The 10 districts, with the two non-geographical ones
The 10 districts, with the two non-geographical ones

Since 1999[3] Croatia has been divided into 10 geographically-based electorates with around 250 000 - 300 000 registrated voters. Each electorate elects up to 14 MPs chosen by the standard D'Hondt formula.

In the 11th electorate, up to 12 members are chosen by proportional representation - depending on a number of voters in Croatia - to represent Croatian citizens residing abroad (known as the diaspora electorate) and 8 members from ethnic/national minorities. Three of these seats are reserved for the Serbian minority.

[edit] Electoral lists

Croatian political parties and independent lists had to formally submit their candidates and eventual pre-election coalitions not later than October 30. 3585 people from political parties or independent lists applied for the elections (22 people per seat). There were 235 political party lists, 16 independent lists and 72 candidates for minority seats. 29.93% of the candidates were women. The average age of the candidates was 43.41 years old; 44.70 for men, and 40.40 for women. The oldest candidate was 89, and the youngest 18. The State Electoral Committee had to confirm the lists before midnight of 2 November.[6] [7]


[edit] Parliamentary parties and coalitions [8]

Parliamentary parties are with bolded acronyms.

[edit] Non-parliamentary parties[9]

[edit] Non-parliamentary coalitions

[edit] Independent Lists

[edit] Distribution of minority seats

[edit] Announced boycotts

[edit] Election spending

On 11 December 2007 GONG and Transparency International Croatia had published media spending of all Croatian political parties during the election period. This numbers are [3]:

[edit] Summary of votes and seats

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 25 November 2007 Croatian Parliament (Hrvatski Sabor) election results
Parties and coalitions Votes % Seats % +/–
Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica) 907,743 36.6 66 43.1 ±0
Social Democratic Party of Croatia (Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske) 775,690 31.2 56 36.6 +22
"Green-Yellow Coalition" (Zeleno-žuta koalicija) Croatian Peasant Party (Hrvatska seljačka stranka) 161,814 6.5 6 3.9 –4
Croatian Social Liberal Party (Hrvatska socijalno liberalna stranka) 2 1.3 ±0
Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar (Primorsko-goranski savez) 0 0.0 –1
Democratic Party of Zagorje (Zagorska demokratska stranka) 0 0.0 —
Zagorje Party (Zagorska stranka) 0 0.0 —
Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats (Hrvatska narodna stranka - Liberalni demokrati) 168,440 6.8 7 4.6 –4
Istrian Democratic Assembly (Istarski demokratski sabor/Dieta democratica Istriana) 38,267 1.5 3 2.0 –1
Croatian Democratic Assembly of Slavonija and Baranja (Hrvatski demokratski sabor Slavonije i Baranje) 44,552 1.8 3 2.0 +3
Coalition Croatian Party of Pensioners (Hrvatska stranka umirovljenika) 101,091 4.1 1 0.7 –2
Democratic Party of Pensioners (Demokratska stranka umirovljenika) 0 0.0 —
Croatian Party of Rights (Hrvatska stranka prava) 86,865 3.5 1 0.7 –7
Coalition Democratic Centre (Demokratski centar) 184,477 7.4 0 0.0 –1
Green Party – Green Alternative (Zelena stranka – Zelena Alternativa) 0 0.0 —
Others 0 0.0 –6
Independent Democratic Serbian Party (Samostalna demokratska srpska stranka) (national minority list) Enrolments and vote totals do not include voters for ethnic minority representatives. 3 2.0 ±0
Party of Democratic Action of Croatia (Stranka Demokratske Akcije Hrvatske) (national minority list) 1 0.7 ±0
Other national minority representatives 4 2.6 ±0
Total 2,483,452 100.0 153 100 —
Source: Adam Carr's Election Archive

[edit] Formation of government

See also: Sixth assembly of the Croatian Parliament

On night of the elections, after first seat projections were announced, the president of the Croatian Democratic Union announced that he spoke with the President of the Republic and that he will be forming the government.[11] A few minutes after him, the president of the Social Democratic Party informed the public that he too spoke with president and that he too was commencing the formation of the government.[11]

President Mesić explained that his constitutional obligation was to give a mandate to form a government to a person who presents him with convincing proof that they have support of a majority of the newly elected parliament.[12] As the president failed to announce that he will give the mandate to Ivo Sanader, leader of the party with the most seats in the parliament, he was criticised by many[13][14][15] for complicating the situation and starting a political crisis. President Mesić responded that he was following article 97 of the Constitution of Croatia.[13]

HDZ, together with HSU [16] and Roma national minority member Nazif Memedi [17] had 68 of 77 seats required for a majority while SDP , HNS , IDS [18] and SDA [19] together had 67 seats. Therefore, the HSS-HSLS coalition which had 8 seats was instrumental in forming a government.[20] Before the elections, leaders of the coalition stated that they will first speak with the party which wins the most seats (not counting diaspora seats).[20] As this turned out to be HDZ, negotiations between HDZ and HSS-HSLS of a coalition started on 3 December.[21]

Although HSS-HSLS started negotiating with HDZ, the president of SDP Milanović refused to give up and still claimed that SDP was also in a process of forming of a government because SDP, HNS, IDS and SDA won 150 thousand votes more than HDZ (not counting diaspora).[22] HDSSB had declared support for SDP [23] if SDP-formed government will work "in the interest of Slavonia and Baranja"[24], but Milanović stated that he firmly believed that SDP will form the government even without support from HDSSB. Although up until 25 December Ljubo Jurčić still claimed that he was SDP's candidate for premier[25], on 30 December Milanović announced that he was assuming responsibility for forming SDP-led government. Jurčić confirmed that he thinks that "responsibility for functioning of the government should be distributed among heads of parties and that is the best concept in this circumstances".[26] Heads of HSS-HSLS coalition Adlešič and Friščić declared this decision to be "very important and could influence their decision about who they will support". Adlešić added that Milanović is "much better premier candidate than Jurčić and that SDP would probably have better election results if Milanović made this decision earlier".[27]

On 12 December it was announced that coalition talks between HDZ and the HSS-HSLS were close to completion and the odds of HSS-HSLS entering into discussions with SDP were announced by Božidar Pankretić as very low.[28] Three days later, President Mesić held a second round of consultations with parliamentary parties and was reassured that HDZ and HSS-HSLS are finishing their negotiations. Mesić considered that a proof that Sanader had support of the majority of Sabor and handed him a mandate to form a government.[29] Following that announcement, Milanović again reiterated that SDP still hasn't given up on forming a government. Sandader described this behaviour as "not fitting the democratic standards" and that president would have much easier job if SDP just acknowledged their defeat.[29]

The first session of the newly elected parliament was called for 11 January 2008,[30] and on 12 January, the parliament approved Sanader's cabinet. [31]

[edit] References

  1. ^ (Croatian) President announces elections
  2. ^ javno.com: Official Electoral Results on Dec 11 At Earliest
  3. ^ a b (Croatian) Law defining electorates
  4. ^ (Croatian) Središnji državni ured za upravu: Pravo glasa na parlamentarnim izborima ostvaruje 4 478 386 birača
  5. ^ (Croatian) Večernji list: Četiri milijuna građana na izborima
  6. ^ (Croatian) News about electoral lists on Net.hr
  7. ^ (Croatian) Announcement regarding electoral lists
  8. ^ IZBORI 2007
  9. ^ IZBORI 2007
  10. ^ Following parliamentary elections 25th November 2007 in the Croatia will be unconstitutional not free and undemocratically
  11. ^ a b (Croatian) Sanader i Milanović 'pobjednici', Mesić odlučuje
  12. ^ (Croatian) iskon.hr: 'Mandat onome s dokazom o većini u Saboru'
  13. ^ a b (Croatian) Mesić: Na mene se vrše pritisci
  14. ^ (Croatian) net.hr: I dalje se ne zna ni tko, ni kada
  15. ^ (Croatian) net.hr: Zašto Mesić gubi neutralnost?
  16. ^ (Croatian) [[1]]
  17. ^ (Croatian) [2]
  18. ^ (Croatian)Election discussions with Croatia president
  19. ^ (Croatian)SDA has signed deal with SDP
  20. ^ a b (Croatian) Koaliciji HSS-HSLS obećana tri ministarstva?
  21. ^ (Croatian) tportal.hr: 'Bilo bi lakše da smo išli na podjelu fotelja'
  22. ^ (Croatian)dnevnik.hr: Milanović i Pusić: Imamo zastupnika više od HDZ-a
  23. ^ (Croatian)HDSSB is willing to support SDP
  24. ^ (Croatian)dnevnik.hr: Šišljagić: Priklonit ćemo se onima koji zajamče razvoj Slavonije i Baranje
  25. ^ (Croatian)dnevnik.hr: Jurčić: 'Ja sam budući hrvatski premijer'
  26. ^ (Croatian)dnevnik.hr: SDP maknuo Jurčića da privuče HSS-HSLS?
  27. ^ (Croatian)dnevnik.hr: Adlešič: Promjena Milanović-Jurčić može utjecati na našu odluku
  28. ^ [http://www.javno.com/hr/hrvatska/clanak.php?id=105940 HSS-HSLS to SDP: Last hope is dying
  29. ^ a b (Croatian)net.hr: Sanader sastavlja Vladu
  30. ^ BalkanInsight.com - Croatia's New Parliament Convened
  31. ^ Croatian parliament approves PM Sanader's cabinet - Boston.com

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