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 % Seats +/–
HDZ Franjo Tuđman 45.23 75 −10
HSS–HNS–IDS 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
Politics of Croatia
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People's Party - Reformists (NS-R)
  • Social Democratic Party (SDP)
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  • Workers' Front (RF)
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    Parliamentary elections were held in

    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

    The term of the existing Chamber of Representatives was to expire one year later, in 1996. However, the Croatian government of

    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

    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

    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 mysteriously increase afterwards.

    HKDS–KNS
    		4,6570.1900
    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

    The following changes happened after elections:

    Notes

    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

    1. ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
    2. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p415
    3. ^ "Davor Butković: Prva hrvatska Vlada koja bi mogla pasti - Jutarnji.hr". Archived from the original on 2010-10-19.

    External links

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