Croatian parliamentary election, 1995

Croatian parliamentary election, 1995
	← outgoing members
All 127 seats to Chamber of Representatives ; 64 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	68.8%
Prime Minister before election; Nikica Valentić ; HDZ	Subsequent Prime Minister; Zlatko Mateša ; HDZ

Last updated March 22, 2019

Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 29 October 1995 to elect the 127 members of the Chamber of Representatives.^[1] The result was a victory for the Croatian Democratic Union, which won 75 seats, an absolute majority. Therefore, this was the last election to date in which a single party won enough seats to govern alone, without the need for parliamentary support from pre-election or post-election coalition partners. Voter turnout was 68.8%.^[2]

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

The term of the existing Chamber of Representatives was to expire one year later, in 1996. However, Croatian government of Franjo Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic Union party hoped to exploit national euphoria over the success of Operation Storm.^[3] Chamber of Representatives was quickly dissolved, but not before passing yet another piece of electoral legislation, introducing new voting system which was to improve chances of ruling party.^{[ citation needed ]}

Operation Storm was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory for the Croatian Army (HV), which attacked across a 630-kilometre (390 mi) front against the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), and a strategic victory for the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH).

According to the new electoral law, 32 seats were won in individual constituencies on First past the post basis, while 80 seats were to be distributed on the basis of proportional representation, with the threshold being raised from previous 2% to 5%.

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.

Another addition was raised threshold for lists of party coalitions - 8% for coalition of two parties and 11% for coalition of three and more parties. It is more than obvious that the new rules were introduced to discourage coalitions of small opposition parties and subsequently have their votes dispersed and wasted below the threshold, allowing stronger party to get additional seats.

While 12 seats were kept for Croatian expatriates, number of seats reserved for ethnic minorities have changed. This was most evident in case of Serbs, who had only 3 seats compared with previous 11.

The Serbs are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group that formed in the Balkans. The majority of Serbs inhabit the nation state of Serbia, as well as the disputed territory of Kosovo, and the neighboring countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro. They form significant minorities in North Macedonia and Slovenia. There is a large Serb diaspora in Western Europe, and outside Europe there are significant communities in North America and Australia.

Under such conditions, Croatian opposition parties were more concerned about their own political survival than actually challenging ruling party. Learning from their mistakes during 1992 elections, they created ad hoc coalitions and circumvented electoral thresholds by fielding other parties' members as their own candidates on the lists.

In the end, HDZ won roughly the same percentage of votes and same number of seats as three years earlier. More significant changes were among the ranks of Croatian opposition. Social Democratic Party of Croatia re-emerged as significant political factor with 8.93% votes, at the expense of Croatian Social Liberal Party which had its share of votes nearly halved. Both parties, however, were not as successful as large opposition coalition which included Croatian Peasant Party, Croatian People's Party and Istrian Democratic Assembly.

The Social Democratic Party of Croatia is a social-democratic political party and the largest party of the Croatian centre-left. The SDP is one of the two major political parties in Croatia, along with the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

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 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 most tense moment of the campaign occurred during the vote count. It appeared that Croatian Party of Rights would fail to break 5% threshold, only for the vote to mysteriously increase afterwards.

The election was held in conjunction with special elections for Zagreb City Assembly, which resulted with Zagreb Crisis.

Results

Party	PR			Constituency			Diaspora			Total seats	+/–
Party	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Total seats	+/–
Croatian Democratic Union	1,093,403	45.23	42			21			12	75	–10
HSS-IDS-HNS-HKDU-SBHS ^[a]	441,390	18.26	16			2			0	18	+5
Croatian Social Liberal Party	279,245	11.55	10			2			0	12	–2
Social Democratic Party	215,839	8.93	8			2			0	10	–1
Croatian Party of Rights	121,095	5.01	4			0			0	4	–1
Social Democratic Union	78,282	3.24	0			0			0	0	0
Croatian Independent Democrats	72,612	3.00	0						0	1	+1
Social Democratic Action of Croatia	40,348	1.57	0						0	1	+1
Croatian Party of Rights 1861	31,530	1.30	0			0			0	0	0
Croatian Christian Democratic Party	16,986	0.70	0			0			0	0	0
Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar			0						0	1	0
Serb People's Party			0						0	2	–1
Other parties	26,644	1.10	0			0			0	0	0
Independents	–	–	0			4			0	4	–1
Invalid/blank votes	82,666	–	–		–	–		–	–	–	–
Total	2,500,040	100	80			32			12	127	–11
Sources: Nohlen & Stöver, IDS-DDI web site, HIDRA 1995 election statistics, Ilišin, Vlasta (September 1999). "Strukturna dinamika hrvatskog parlamenta" [Structural dynamics of the Croatian Parliament]. Politička misao: Croatian Political Science Review (in Croatian). Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb. 36 (3): 151–174. ISSN 0032-3241 . Retrieved 2011-11-13. "Broj i postotak stranačkih zastupnika u Hrvatskome saboru od 1992. do 2001. godine". Parlamentarne stranke (in Croatian). Croatian Information-Documentation Referral Agency. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-13.

^a Within the alliance, the Croatian Peasant Party won 10 seats (+7), the Istrian Democratic Assembly won 3 (no change), the Croatian People's Party won 2 (–4), the Croatian Christian Democratic Union won 1 (+1) and the Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party won one (+1).

Popular vote

HDZ			45.23%
HSS-IDS-HNS-HKDU-SBHS			18.26%
HSLS			11.55%
SDP			8.93%
HSP			5.01%
SDU			3.24%
HND			3.00%
SDAH			1.57%
HSP1861			1.30%
Others			1.91%

Subsequent changes

The following changes happened after elections:

The Croatian Pure Party of Rights gained one member of parliament
The Croatian Christian Democratic Union gained one more member of parliament
The Serb People's Party lost one member of parliament
The Independent Democratic Serb Party gained one member of parliament
The Liberal Party gained four members of parliament
The Istrian Democratic Forum gained one member of parliament
The Croatian Independent Democrats lost one member of parliament
Social Democratic Action of Croatia lost one member of parliament

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References

↑ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p410 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p415
↑ http://www.jutarnji.hr/davor-butkovic--prva-hrvatska-vlada-koja-bi-mogla-pasti/895339/

External links

Rezultati izbora zastupnika za Zastupnički dom Sabora Republike Hrvatske (29.10.1995.) (in Croatian)

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

[2] Nohlen & Stöver, p415

[3] ttp://www.jutarnji.hr/davor-butkovic--prva-hrvatska-vlada-koja-bi-mogla-pasti/895339/

[a]