Croatian Chamber of Counties election, 1993

Croatian Chamber of Counties election, 1993
63 out 68 seats to the Chamber of Counties
Turnout	64.3%
	Elected Speaker; Josip Manolić ; HDZ

Last updated March 22, 2019

Chamber of Counties elections were held for the first time in Croatia on 7 February 1993.^[1] The result was a victory for the Croatian Democratic Union, which won 37 of the 63 elected seats.

Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, on the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to the southeast, sharing a maritime border with Italy. Its capital, Zagreb, forms one of the country's primary subdivisions, along with twenty counties. Croatia has an area of 56,594 square kilometres and a population of 4.28 million, most of whom are Roman Catholics.

The Croatian Democratic Union is a conservative political party and the main centre-right political party in Croatia. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Croatia, along with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP). It is currently the largest party in the Sabor with 55 seats. The HDZ ruled Croatia from 1990 after the country gained independence from Yugoslavia until 2000 and, in coalition with junior partners, from 2003 to 2011, and since 2016. The party is a member of the European People's Party (EPP). HDZ's leader, Andrej Plenković, is the current Prime Minister of Croatia, having taken office following the 2016 Parliamentary Election.

Background

Under the new constitution adopted in 1990, the Croatian Parliament was bicameral. The lower house had been elected in 1992 and its representatives had passed laws creating new territorial organisations of Croatia. This included counties that were to be represented by the upper house – the Chamber of Counties.

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.

Each county elected three members, while the President had the right to appoint five members, known as "Virils".^[2] The electoral law made each county a district that was to elect three representatives on the basis of proportional representation.

Proportional representation (PR) characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result - not just a plurality, or a bare majority. The most prevalent forms of proportional representation all require the use of multiple-member voting districts, as it is not possible to fill a single seat in a proportional manner. In fact, the implementations of PR that achieve the highest levels of proportionality tend to include districts with large numbers of seats.

In practice, the use of proportional representation in such small districts led to a single party – the Croatian Democratic Union – being grossly overrepresented because sometimes even with less than third of the votes guaranteed two of the three seats.

The elections were marked by an uncharacteristically intense campaign directed towards single region – Istria. Government of Franjo Tuđman has invested great effort to defeat the Istrian Democratic Assembly, concerned about party's good result during 1992 elections. This effort backfired, resulting in record vote for the IDS.

Istria, formerly Histria (Latin), Ίστρια, is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Kvarner Gulf. It is shared by three countries: Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. Croatia encapsulates most of the Istrian peninsula with its Istria County.

Franjo Tuđman Croatian politician, soldier and president

Franjo Tuđman, also written as Franjo Tudjman, was a Croatian politician and historian. Following the country's independence from Yugoslavia he became the first President of Croatia and served as president from 1990 until his death in 1999. He was the 9th and last President of the Presidency of SR Croatia from May to July 1990.

Istrian Democratic Assembly political party in Croatia

The Istrian Democratic Assembly is a centre-left, regionalist, liberal political party in Croatia primarily operating in Istria County.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats
Croatian Democratic Union	1,013,365	45.5	37
Croatian Social Liberal Party	486,210	21.8	16
Croatian Peasant Party	258,953	11.6	5
Istrian Democratic Assembly	76,273	3.4	3
HSLS-HNS	45,657	2.0	–
Party of Democratic Changes	41,955	1.9	1
HSLS-HNS-SDP	35,937	1.6	–
HSLS-HNS-HKDU-SDP	33,246	1.5	–
Croatian Christian Democratic Union	27,584	1.2	0
Dalmatian Action	26,303	1.2	0
RDS-IDS	22,801	1.0	–
HSLS-SDP	21,478	1.0	–
SDP-HSS	18,312	0.8	–
Social Democratic Union	17,413	0.8	0
Croatian People's Party	15,363	0.7	1
Other parties	64,351	2.9	0
Independents	22,562	1.01	0
Appointed members	–	–	5
Invalid/blank votes	76,019	–	–
Total	2,303,782	100	68
Registered voters	3,580,396	64.3	–
Sources: Nohlen & Stöver, Official results^[3]

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References

↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p410 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p419
↑ "Izvješće o provedenim izborima za zastupnike u Županijski dom Sabora Republike Hrvatske" (PDF) (in Croatian). State Election Commission of the Republic of Croatia. February 1993. Retrieved 2011-11-28.

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[NS-1] Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p410 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

[2] Nohlen & Stöver, p419

[3] "Izvješće o provedenim izborima za zastupnike u Županijski dom Sabora Republike Hrvatske" (PDF) (in Croatian). State Election Commission of the Republic of Croatia. February 1993. Retrieved 2011-11-28.

Croatian Chamber of Counties election, 1993

Contents

Background

Results

Related Research Articles

References