Next Croatian parliamentary election
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The next Croatian parliamentary elections will be held on or before 23 December 2020. It will be the tenth parliamentary election since the first multi-party elections in 1990 and will elect the 151 members of the Croatian Parliament unless there is a change in the electoral system or number of seats before the date of the election.
The previous parliamentary elections, held on 11 September 2016, resulted in the plurality of seats being won by the Croatian Democratic Union led by Andrej Plenković. He began talks with the third-placed Bridge of Independent Lists (Most) and MPs representing national minorities on forming a governing majority. Plenković presented 91 signatures of support by MPs to the President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on 10 October 2016 and received a 30-day mandate to form a government. Parliament formally convened on 14 October 2016 with the election of Most chairman Božo Petrov as a Speaker, while a parliamentary vote held on 19 October 2016 confirmed the proposed Cabinet of Andrej Plenković by a vote of 91 in favor, 45 against and 3 abstentions. Plenković subsequently became the 12th Prime Minister of Croatia.
Most left the governing coalition in April 2017 amid a disagreement with the HDZ over Finance Minister Zdravko Marić's alleged withholding of information relating to financial irregularities in Agrokor, one of Croatia's largest firms, which resulted in a crisis due to Agrokor not being able to pay back its loans. In May the possibility of early elections was heightened as the HDZ was left without a parliamentary majority and a no-confidence vote in Marić was only narrowly avoided by a 75–75 vote in Parliament. In June the HDZ regained a parliamentary majority by forming a government with the support of five of the nine HNS MPs representing, with the other four forming a new political party, Civic-Liberal Alliance (Glas) and remaining in the opposition.
Background
In the previous parliamentary election, held on 11 September 2016, the Croatian Democratic Union won an upset plurality of seats, receiving 61 seats in the parliament, while the opposition People's Coalition won 54 seats. HDZ chairman Andrej Plenković started talks on forming a governing majority with Most, which won 13 seats. Furthermore, SDP chairman and People's Coalition Prime Ministerial candidate Zoran Milanović announced his withdrawal from politics after the defeat. A few weeks after the election HDZ and Most concluded talks on forming a government, which would also include the 8 Members of Parliament representing national minorities. On 10 October 2016 Plenković formally presented 91 signatures of support by MPs to President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, therefore far more than the necessary majority of 76 signatures and he was thus made Prime Minister-designate with a 30-day mandate to form a government until 9 November 2016. The 9th Assembly of the Croatian Parliament was constituted on 14 October with the election of Most leader Božo Petrov as Speaker. On 19 October a parliamentary vote of 91 in favor, 45 against and 3 abstentions formally confirmed Croatia's fourteenth government since the first multi-party elections in 1990, with Andrej Plenković as Croatia's twelfth Prime Minister.
Electoral system
The 151 members of the Croatian Parliament are elected by three methods:[1]
- 140 seats are elected in ten 14-seat constituencies (Constituencies I-X) by open list proportional representation (using a 5% electoral threshold) with seats allocated using the d'Hondt method
- 3 seats are elected in a special constituency (Constituency XI) for Croatian citizens and people of Croatian descent living overseas
- 8 seats are elected from a constituency for ethnic national minorities (Constituency XII): 3 seats for Serbs, 1 seat for Italians, 1 seat for Hungarians, 1 seat for Czechs and Slovaks, 1 seat for Albanians, Bosniaks, Macedonians, Montenegrins and Slovenes and 1 seat for Austrians, Bulgarians, Germans, Jews, Poles, Roma, Romanians, Rusyns, Russians, Turks, Ukrainians and Vlachs
Outgoing 9th Assembly of Parliament
Partisan makeup of the 9th Assembly of the Croatian Parliament (as of 8 October 2018)
Opinion polls
References
- ↑ Electoral system IPU