European Forum

No major surprises in Croatia’s local elections: SDP leader Milanovic satisfied with preliminary results

On Sunday 17 May local elections were held in Croatia. According to the State Election Commission (IDS), the Social Democratic Party (SDP) together with smaller coalition parties has won the majority of seats in 5 county assemblies plus the city of Zagreb. The leader of SDP Zoran Milanovic was satisfied with the results and stated that these “confirm the strength and stability of SDP,” adding that the fact that strength of SDP in major cities is positive, but that it is also a message that the party has a lot of work to do in smaller municipalities.

The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of the Croatian Prime Minster and leader of the party Ivo Sanader has won the majority of the votes with their coalition partners in 14 county assemblies. After the preliminary results were published Sanader stated that “it can be argued with strong arguments that HDZ has won the local elections. If parliamentary elections would have been hold today, HDZ and its partners would get more votes than during parliamentary elections in 2007,” he said. The regional Istrian Democratic Assembly won county council elections in Istria.

Traditionally SDP has won the majorities in the capital Zagreb and Rijeka. However, in Split the party will have to compete in a mayoral runoff on 31 May. In another big city, Osijek, the regional Croatian Democratic Parliament of Slavonia and Baranja (HDSSB), confirmed its dominance by getting nearly one third of the votes.

The elections were held under new regulations according to which 4 million registered Croatian were able for the first time to elect directly their local representatives. According to the new rules, voters in local units with populations up to 10,000 will elect one deputy municipal head or mayor, while units with population exceeding 10,000 in the counties and the city of Zagreb will elect two deputy municipal heads. Furthermore, there were some unusual independent candidates, for example influential businessmen, how run for mayor.

Finally, it is worthwhile noticing that the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs has organized bus transport for Serbian voters who used to live in Croatia in order to make it possible for them to exercise their right to vote.

The turnout at the elections was rather low with approximately 35 per cent. Offical results of the elections will be published on after the second round in some municipalities which will take place on 31 May.

Source: BIRN, SETimes, HRT (Hrvatska Radio Televizija) and SDP website