Croatia - 2024 parliamentary elections
Croatia is a parliamentary republic. The Sabor (parliament) comprises 151 members and is elected for a four-year term; the prime minister leads the government and requires an absolute majority of the parliament to take office. The president is directly elected for a maximum of two five-year terms. In the last parliamentary elections held on 5 July 2020, the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)led coalition won 66 seats, while the opposition Restart Coalition (RK), led by Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) – received 41 seats. The Homeland Movement, a party formed prior to the 2020 parliamentary elections, led a coalition of 6 other parties and obtained 16 seats. In addition to 8 seats reserved for national minorities, the remaining 20 seats were won by 6 additional parties or coalitions.
The year 2024 in the Republic of Croatia has been proclaimed a super-election year, as it will witness parliamentary elections, elections for the European Parliament, and elections for the President of the Republic of Croatia. The parliamentary elections are set for 17 April, constituting the 11th (early) parliamentary elections since the declaration of independence in 1991.
Members of the Croatian Parliament are elected directly, through a secret ballot using a proportional representation system where each party or candidate is entitled to the number of parliamentary seats proportional to the number of votes received. The electoral threshold stands at 5%. A total of 151 deputies are elected to the Parliament. Out of these, 140 deputies are elected from the Republic of Croatia's territory, divided into 10 electoral units, each unit electing 14 deputies. Three deputy seats are elected by Croatian citizens abroad (11th electoral unit), and eight seats are allocated to members of national minorities (12th electoral unit). These are the fifth parliamentary elections where it is possible to use preferential voting. However, insufficient efforts have been made so far in promoting preferential voting and active citizenship.
There were 165 candidate lists participating in the elections, including 95 independent party lists (compared to 192 in the previous elections). A total of 2,277 candidates are in the running, comprising 56% men and 44% women. Interestingly, the HDZ has only 25% of women on its electoral lists. The Republic of Croatia has approximately 3.9 million inhabitants, with 3,733,283 eligible voters. Among them, 3,511,086 reside in Croatia, including 13,361 previously registered voters. Outside Croatia (diaspora – Croatian emigrants), 222,197 voters have actively registered. The most registrations are in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Serbia, Switzerland, and Austria. The diaspora will vote in the 11th electoral unit, while members of national minorities have voting rights for their eight representatives in the 12th electoral unit.
On 17 February, several opposition parties jointly organised a major protest in Zagreb against the appointment of a former judge as the chief state attorney, alleging ties to the ruling party and to former officials who have been charged with corruption. The protestors also demanded the dissolution of parliament and subsequent early elections.
On 14 March 2024, the parliament voted to dissolve and on 15 March the president scheduled early parliamentary elections for 17 April. Voters will elect 151 members of the Sabor (parliament). The legal framework for parliamentary elections remains substantially unchanged since the previous elections, leaving most ODIHR electoral recommendations unaddressed. ODIHR has previously recommended that constituency boundaries be reviewed to ensure equality of the vote, and a new Law on Constituencies was adopted in 2023. Still, the process was criticized by several interlocutors as lacking inclusive consultation. On 18 March, the Constitutional Court issued a warning to the president and his affiliated opposition party noting that his current constitutional role is incompatible with participating in the parliamentary elections as a candidate or public endorser, which was met by criticism by the affected parties and in a dissenting Opinion of three justices.
Voter registration is passive and voters lists are derived from a centralized electronic voter register maintained by the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration. Members of parliament and electoral contestants have access to certain voter data related to their respective constituencies, and voters may scrutinize and request updates to their personal voter records. Voters may also request a temporary change in order to cast a ballot outside of their constituency of permanent residence.
Registered political parties as well as coalitions of parties or citizen initiatives can nominate lists of potential candidates, and associations representing national minorities can nominate majoritarian candidates in the respective constituency.
The conduct of election campaigns is underregulated and that the existing legislation does not stipulate sanctions for infractions. Some interlocutors expected the use of automated accounts to manipulate content on social networking platforms and noted a lack of discussion on potential policy efforts to regulate online campaigns. Some also raised concerns about the potential misuse of state resources by incumbent politicians, as well as the potential for intolerant and sexist rhetoric in the campaign.
Campaigns can be funded by party funds and individual donations and the law sets limits on contributions and expenditures. Parliamentary parties are entitled to public funding based on the election results, tied to the number of elected candidates. Additional public funding is available for elected candidates of the underrepresented gender and national minorities. Contestants submit interim and final financial reports to the State Election Commission, which are published online.
The freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Constitution, which prohibits censorship and establishes the right of access to information. The media landscape is diverse with a wide variety of broadcasters, print media and online portals. The media landscape is diverse with a wide variety of commercial and public broadcasters as well as print media. While television is still considered a main source of political information, there is an increase in Internet news portals at the national and local levels. While efforts are made by respective authorities to publish information about media ownership, political associations continue to exist among many media outlets and that a lack of transparency often persists.
The campaign centered on a bitter rivalry between the country’s president and prime minister. The campaign featured topics such as corruption, the role and conduct of the judiciary, as well as migration and certain social issues, such as reproductive rights and the rights of sexual minorities. The elections came as Croatia battles corruption, labor shortages, undocumented migration and the highest inflation rate in the Eurozone, which it only joined last year. The Balkan nation remains one of the poorest in the European Union(EU) with an average monthly wage of just €1,240 ($1,345). The campaign saw Prime Minister Plenkovic challenged by Zoran Milanovic, Croatia's president who broke with convention to campaign on behalf of the SDP.
Milanovic dubbed Plenkovic the "godfather of crime," highlighting the recent appointment of the country's new chief prosecutor, a judge with alleged ties to corruption suspects. Milanovic, who served as prime minister from 2011 to 2016, has condemned Russia's war on Ukraine but has argued that he is protecting Croatian interests by preventing the country from being "dragged into war."
Plenkovic — who has served as premier since 2016 — accused his rival of being a "coward" and of violating the constitution by not resigning as president in order to stand for election, as the country's top court had ordered him to do. He has also repeatedly accused Milanovic of being "pro-Russian" due to his criticism of EU backing for Ukraine and his opposition to training Ukrainian soldiers in Croatia, which is a NATO member.
Croatia's ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won the country's parliamentary elections on 17 April 2024 with 60 seats — six fewer than in 2020 and not enough to form a majority in the 151-seat assembly. With results officially confirmed from over 90% of polling stations, incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic will now enter potentially tough coalition talks to form a majority. "The HDZ has for the third [consecutive] time convincingly won a parliamentary election," Plenkovic told his supporters in the capital, Zagreb, saying that coalition talks will start immediately.
A center-left coalition led by the Social Democrats (SDP) came in second with 42 seats, a result which SDP leader Pedja Grbin admitted wasn't what the party had been hoping for but which "showed that … people want a change." He insisted that "it's not over" and that "days, weeks and perhaps months of talks are ahead of us and they will result in the change that will make Croatia a better place."
The right-wing nationalist Homeland Movement was third with 14 seats and could become a kingmaker in coalition talks. Another ultra-conservative party won 11 seats while a green-left party won 10 seats. "It will be a very difficult negotiating process" to form a new government, political analyst Tihomir Cipek told Nova TV. Election turnout was back up to 60%, compared with just 47% during the 2020 vote.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
