Croatia first appeared as two duchies in the 7th century, the Duchy of Croatia and the Duchy of Pannonian Croatia, which were united and elevated into the Croatian Kingdom which lasted from 925 until 1918. From the 12th century the Kingdom of Croatia entered a Personal Union with the Kingdom of Hungary, it remained a distinct state with its ruler (Ban) and Sabor, but it elected Royal dynasties from neighboring powers, primarily Hungary, Naples and Austria.
The politics of Croatia are defined by a parliamentary, representative democratic republic framework, where the Prime Minister of Croatia is the head of government in a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Government and the President of Croatia. Legislative power is vested in the Croatian Parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The parliament adopted the current Constitution of Croatia on 22 December 1990 and decided to declare independence from Yugoslavia on 25 May 1991. The Constitutional Decision on the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Croatia came into effect on 8 October 1991. The constitution has since been amended several times. The first modern parties in the country developed in the middle of the 19th century, and their agenda and appeal changed, reflecting major social changes, such as the breakup of Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, dictatorship and social upheavals in the kingdom, World War II, the establishment of Communist rule and the breakup of the SFR Yugoslavia.
The President of Croatia, officially styled the President of the Republic, is the head of state, commander in-chief of the military and chief representative of the Republic of Croatia both within the country and abroad. The President is the holder of the highest office within the Croatia's order of precedence, however, the president is not the head of the executive branch as Croatia has a parliamentary system in which the holder of the post of Prime Minister is the most powerful person within the country's constitutional framework and within everyday's politics.
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.
The Istrian Democratic Assembly is a centre-left, regionalist, liberal political party in Croatia primarily operating in Istria County.
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 Social Liberal Party is a conservative-liberal political party in Croatia. The HSLS was formed in 1989 as the first Croatian political party formed after the reintroduction of multi-party system.
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.
Count Károly Khuen-Héderváry de Hédervár, born as Károly Khuen de Belás, was a Hungarian politician; Ban of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia in the late nineteenth century. He succeeded the temporary reign of Ban Hermann Ramberg in 1883. Khuen's reign was marked by a strong magyarization. After a series of riots broke out against him in 1903, Khuen was relieved of his duty and appointed prime minister of Hungary.
Parliamentary elections were held in the Socialist Republic of Croatia between 22 and 23 April 1990; the second round of voting occurred on 6–7 May. These were the first free, multi-party elections held in Croatia since 1938, and the first such elections for the Croatian Parliament since 1913. Voters elected candidates for 356 seats in the tri-cameral parliament; the turnout in the first round ranged between 76.56% and 84.54% for various parliamentary chambers. In the second round, the turnout was 74.82%. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won 205 seats, ousted the League of Communists of Croatia – Party of Democratic Reform (SKH-SDP) from power and ended 45 years of communist rule in Croatia. The new parliament convened for the first time on 30 May, elected Franjo Tuđman as President of the Croatian Presidency and soon after renamed the office to President of Croatia.
Parliamentary elections for the Chamber of Representatives of the Croatian Parliament were held on 3 January 2000. These were the first elections to be held after the expiration of a full 4-year term of the previous Chamber of Representatives.
Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 25 November 2007 and for overseas voters on 24 and 25 November. The campaign officially started on 3 November. The President of Croatia announced elections on 17 October and 14 days were allowed for candidate lists to be submitted.
Yugoslav Muslim Organization was a Bosniak political party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was founded in Sarajevo on the 16 February 1919 and was led by Mehmed Spaho. The party was a successor of Muslimanska Narodna Organizacija, a conservative Bosniak party founded in 1906 during the Austro-Hungarian era. The Muslim National Organization was itself a successor of the conservative Bosniak "Movement for waqf and educational autonomy" that goes back to 1887. In election campaigns the JMO did mobilize on religious slogans rather than Bosniak nationality, calling failure of Muslims to vote for the party as a sin. The party had considerable influence in Islamic religious institutions, and JMO came to dominate the political life in Bosnia. The party appealed to Muslims throughout Yugoslavia, urging them not to migrate to Turkey.
The 2009 Croatian local elections were held on 17 May, with the second round held on 31 May where necessary.
The United States Senate elections of 1886 and 1887 were elections that had the Republican Party lose two seats in the United States Senate. At the beginning of the 50th Congress, therefore, Republicans had the slimmest possible majority due to a vacant Democratic seat: 38 out of 75 seats. Once that vacancy was filled, Republicans maintained control as the single Readjuster Senator caucused with them.
Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 8 November 2015. All 151 seats in the Parliament were up for election. This parliamentary election was the 8th since the first multi-party election in 1990 and the first since Croatia joined the European Union in 2013. The ruling center-left Croatia is Growing coalition, led by Prime Minister Zoran Milanović, was challenged by the center-right Patriotic Coalition led by the HDZ and headed by its party chairman Tomislav Karamarko, and also faced several new political coalitions.
The European Parliament election, 2014 were held on 25 May 2014 in Croatia.
The Bridge of Independent Lists is a political party in Croatia founded in 2012. The party is led by Božo Petrov, its founder and the former Mayor of Metković and Speaker of the Croatian Parliament from 14 October 2016 to 5 May 2017.
