Croatian Elections - Referendums

Referendums

A referendum in Croatia can be called by the Parliament of Croatia or the President of Croatia on any issue falling within the purview of parliament, or on any other issue the president considers important to the independence, unity and existence of the republic. Since the constitution was amended in 2001, parliament is obligated by the constitution to call for a referendum if signatures of 10 percent of registered Croatian voters are collected. The signatures, by law, must be collected within a 15-day period. Referendums are regulated by Article 87 of the constitution of Croatia which requires that the parliament passes an act on each referendum and that the outcome is binding unless the referendum is called as an advisory referendum.

There have been two referendums in modern Croatia: Croatian independence referendum and Croatian European Union membership referendum, and in both majority voted in favour. There have been four other public initiatives to collect the support of 10 percent of voters for a referendum, none of which were successful: concerning Croatian cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, concerning accession of Croatia to NATO in 2008, concerning Arbitration Agreement on Croatian-Slovenian border issues in 2009, and concerning Labour Act in 2010.