Presidential elections were held in Croatia in January 2000, the third since independence in 1991. They were also the first early presidential elections, as they were held due to the death of incumbent president Franjo Tuđman on 10 December 1999, as well as being the last elections held under the semi-presidential system of government, by which the President was the most powerful official in the government structure and could appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister and their cabinet.
The Prime Minister of Croatia, officially the President of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, is Croatia's head of government, and is de facto the most powerful and influential state officeholder in the Croatian system of government. Following the first-time establishment of the office in 1945, the 1990-2001 semi-presidential period is the only exception where the President of Croatia held de facto authority. In the formal Croatian order of precedence, however, the position of prime minister is the third highest state office, after the President of the Republic and the Speaker of the Parliament.
The Croatian Parliament or the Sabor is the unicameral representative body of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia; it is Croatia's legislature. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the people and is vested with legislative power. The Sabor is composed of 151 members elected to a four-year term on the basis of direct, universal and equal suffrage by secret ballot. Seats are allocated according to the Croatian Parliament electoral districts: 140 members of the parliament are elected in multi-seat constituencies, 8 from the minorities and 3 from the Croatian diaspora. The Sabor is presided over by a Speaker, who is assisted by at least one deputy speaker.
The Croatian Peasant Party is a centrist political party in Croatia founded on December 22, 1904 by Antun and Stjepan Radić as Croatian Peoples' Peasant Party (HPSS). Brothers Radić considered that the realization of Croatian statehood was possible within Austria-Hungary, but that it had to be reformed into a Monarchy divided into three equal parts – Austria, Hungary, Croatia. After the creation of Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918, Party requested for the Croatian part of the Kingdom to be based on self-determination. This brought them great public support which columned in 1920 parliamentary election when HPSS won all 58 seats assigned to Croatia.
The Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats is a liberal political party in Croatia.
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, nine parliamentary elections were also held. In addition, there were six nationwide local elections. Croatia has held two elections to elect 11 members of the European Parliament following its accession to the EU on 1 July 2013.
Presidential elections were held in Croatia in January 2005, the fourth such elections since independence in 1991. They were the first presidential elections held after the constitutional changes of November 2000, which replaced a semi-presidential system with an incomplete parliamentary system, greatly reducing the powers of the President in favor of the Prime Minister and their cabinet. Incumbent president Stjepan Mesić, who had been elected in 2000 as the candidate of the Croatian People's Party, was eligible to seek reelection to a second term and ran as an independent as the constitution prohibits the President from holding party membership while in office.
Dražen Budiša is a retired Croatian politician who used to be leading opposition figure in the 1990s and a two-time presidential candidate. As leader of the Croatian Social Liberal Party through the 1990s he remains to date the only Leader of the Opposition not to have been from either the Croatian Democratic Union or Social Democratic Party.
Presidential elections were held in Croatia on 27 December 2009 and 10 January 2010. Twelve candidates participated in the first round, prior to a run-off between first-round winner Ivo Josipović and runner-up Milan Bandić. In the run-off, Josipović won a landslide victory, receiving 60.3% of the vote becoming the first elected president nominated by the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP). The incumbent president Stjepan Mesić, who was first elected in 2000 as the candidate of the Croatian People's Party and re-elected in 2005 as an independent, was ineligible to seek re-election to a third term due to term limits.
Events from the year 2009 in Croatia.
Ivo Josipović is a Croatian jurist, composer and politician who served as the President of Croatia from 2010 to 2015.
Events from the year 2005 in Croatia.
Tomislav Karamarko is a Croatian politician who served as the First Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia from January until June 2016. He served in the Cabinet of Jadranka Kosor as Minister of Interior from 2008 to 2011.
Events from the year 2010 in Croatia.
The Croatian Left has consisted of a broad range of individuals, groups, and political parties who seek egalitarian, economic, social and cultural rights in Croatia. Left wing ideologies came to Croatia in the late 19th century during the Austria-Hungary regime. In 1894, the Social Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia was formed. It was the first workers party in Croatia at the time. In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes the leftist movement grew but it was suppressed by the royal government. In 1920, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was proclaimed illegal and its sympathizers were brutally persecuted after winning a large number of positions in the local elections. During the 1920s, Stjepan Radić and his Croatian Peasant Party led a centre-left agrarianism and anty-royalist policy. They were the leading Croatian political party at the time. After the assassination of Radić in 1929, the Croatian Peasant Party was taken over by Vlatko Maček who enforced a more conservative and nationalist rhetoric. During the Socialist Yugoslavia era, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was the only legal party in the country. In 1990, political plurality was restored and a number of left-wing parties emerged with the most notable one being the Social Democratic Party of Croatia.
