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1995 Croatian parliamentary election

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1995 Croatian parliamentary election
Croatia
← 1992 29 October 1995 2000 →

All 127 seats in the Chamber of Representatives
64 seats needed for a majority
Turnout68.79% (Decrease 6.82pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/-
HDZ Franjo Tuđman 45.23 75 −10
HSSHNSIDS Zlatko Tomčić 18.26 18 +5
HSLS Dražen Budiša 11.55 12 −2
SDP Ivica Račan 8.93 10 −1
HSP Anto Đapić 5.01 4 −1
Minority lists
SNS Milan Đukić 60.60 2 −1
ASH Živko Juzbašić [hr] 34.34 1 New
Independents [a] 4 0
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Result by constituency.
Voting was not held in the eastern territory still under control of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (in dark gray)
Prime Minister before Subsequent Prime Minister
Nikica Valentić
HDZ
Zlatko Mateša
HDZ

Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 29 October 1995 to elect the 127 members of the Chamber of Representatives.[1] The election was held in conjunction with special elections for Zagreb City Assembly, which resulted in the Zagreb Crisis.

The result was a victory for the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which won an absolute majority of 75 seats. Voter turnout was 68.8%.[2]

This was the last election to date in Croatia 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.

Background

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

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%.

Another addition was a 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 the stronger party to get additional seats.

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

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

Results

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The HDZ received a similar percentage of vote and number of seats as three years earlier. More significant changes were among the ranks of the opposition; the Social Democratic Party re-emerged as a significant political factor with 9% of the vote, at the expense of the Croatian Social Liberal Party, which saw its vote share almost halved. Neither party was as successful as the large opposition coalition which included the Croatian Peasant Party, the Croatian People's Party and the Istrian Democratic Assembly.

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

PartyProportionalConstituencyTotal
seats
Votes%SeatsVotes%Seats
Croatian Democratic Union1,093,40345.23421,152,46046.843375
HSSIDSHNSHKDUSBHS441,39018.261616
Croatian Social Liberal Party279,24511.5510209,5418.52111
Social Democratic Party215,8398.93839,0161.5919
Croatian Party of Rights121,0955.014170,7556.9404
Social Democratic Union78,2823.24041,0141.6700
Croatian Independent Democrats72,6123.0000
Social Democratic Action40,3481.67017,8620.7300
Croatian Party of Rights 186131,5301.3001,5620.0600
Croatian Christian Democratic Party16,9860.70022,0050.8900
Croatian Party of Natural Law7,8350.3208,4440.3400
Croatian Conservative Party [hr]6,8580.2800
Independent Party of Rights [hr]6,6080.2701,9900.0800
Homeland Civic Party [hr]5,3430.2206540.0300
HSSHSLSHNSHKDUHNDIDSSDPHSP1861548,25022.2844
Istrian Democratic Assembly65,2832.6511
Croatian Peasant Party39,1581.5900
Croatian Christian Democratic Union16,0040.6500
Dalmatian Action13,4050.5400
Rijeka Democratic Alliance7,9800.3200
ASHDA7,6850.3100
Croatian Democratic Peasant Party6,1110.2500
Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party5,6440.2300
KDM [hr]HKDS–KNS4,6570.1900
Croatian People's Movement – Free Croatia [hr]4,1990.1700
Istrian Independent Party3,8430.1600
Croatian Homeland Party3,6240.1500
Homeland and Diaspora Community3,2560.1300
Croatian Roma Party3,0110.1200
Croatian Party2,7650.1100
Croatian Liberation Movement–Croatian Party3400.0100
Independents59,7292.4300
National minorities7
Total2,417,374100.00802,460,247100.0040127
Valid votes2,417,37496.692,460,24796.99
Invalid/blank votes82,6663.3176,4773.01
Total votes2,500,040100.002,536,724100.00
Registered voters/turnout3,634,23368.793,914,00064.81
Source: CEC

Subsequent changes

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The following changes happened after elections:

Notes

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  1. ^ Sandor Jakab (Hungarian seat), Miroslav Kiš (Austrian, German, Ruthenian and Ukrainian seat), Furio Radin (Italian seat) and Njegovan Starek (Czech and Slovak seat)

References

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  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p410 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p415
  3. ^ "Davor Butković: Prva hrvatska Vlada koja bi mogla pasti". Jutarnji List. 16 October 2010. Archived from the original on 19 October 2010.
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