Croatian Elections

Croatian Elections

Regular elections in Croatia are mandated by the Constitution and legislation enacted by Parliament. The presidency, Parliament, county prefects and assemblies, city and town mayors, and city and municipal councils are all elective offices. Since 1990, five presidential elections have been held. During the same period, eight parliamentary elections (including two for the upper house when the parliament was bicameral) were also held. In addition, there were six nationwide local elections. Croatia is expected to elect 12 members of the European Parliament after its accession to the EU in the scheduled 2014 European Parliament election (which is planned to include Croatia).

The President of Croatia is elected to a five-year term by a direct vote of all citizens in a two-round system, requiring runoff elections if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of votes in the first round. Members of Parliament are elected to a four-year term in ten multi-seat constituencies, with additional members elected in special constituencies reserved for the Croatian diaspora and national minorities. As of November 2011, legislation provides for the election of 151 members of the unicameral parliament. Out of 25 political parties which won seats in Croatian parliamentary elections held since 1990, only five have won ten seats or more in any one parliamentary election. Those were the Croatian Democratic Union, the Croatian Peasant Party, the Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats, the Croatian Social Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party of Croatia. The county prefects, city and town mayors are elected to four-year terms by a majority of votes cast within applicable local government units, with a runoff election if no candidate achieves a majority in the first round of voting. Members of county, city and town councils are elected to four-year terms through proportional representation, with the entire local government unit as a single constituency.

Any Croatian citizen over age 18 may be a candidate in presidential, parliamentary or local government elections, provided that a sufficient number of endorsements by Croatian voters is obtained beforehand. Croatian elections are relatively well-regulated; regulations include spending limits, annual donation limits, a limitation on the number of endorsed candidates and election lists and regulations governing media coverage. Voting takes place in polling stations in Croatia and abroad, monitored by an electoral board and observers at each station. Ballots consist of an alphabetical list of candidates, or an election list with ordinal numbers (which are circled to indicate a vote). All votes are counted by hand. The State Electoral Commission publishes official results and handles complaints, supported by county, city and town electoral commissions during local elections. Decisions of the electoral commissions may be appealed at the Constitutional Court of Croatia.