2003 Croatian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections to elect all 151 members of the Croatian Parliament were held on 23 November 2003.[1] They were the fifth parliamentary elections to take place since the first multi-party elections in 1990. Voter turnout was 61.7%. The result was a victory for the opposition Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) which won a plurality of 66 seats, but fell short of the 76 needed to form a government. HDZ chairman Ivo Sanader was named the eighth Prime Minister of Croatia on 23 December 2003, after parliament passed a confidence motion in his government cabinet, with 88 MPs voting in favor, 29 against and 14 abstaining. The ruling coalition going into the elections, consisting of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Croatian People's Party (HNS), Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), Party of Liberal Democrats (Libra) and the Liberal Party (LS), did not contest the elections as a single bloc; the SDP ran with the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS), the Party of Liberal Democrats (Libra) and the Liberal Party, HNS ran with the Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar (PGS) and the Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party (SBHS), while HSS ran on its own.

2003 Croatian parliamentary election
Croatia
← 2000 23 November 2003 2007 →

All 152 seats in the Croatian Parliament
77 seats needed for a majority
Turnout61.65% (Decrease 9.20pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
HDZ Ivo Sanader 33.91 66 +20
SDPIDSSLDLS Ivica Račan 22.61 43 −6
HNSPGSSBHS Vesna Pusić 8.02 11 +6
HSS Zlatko Tomčić 7.15 9 −7
HSPZDSMS Anto Đapić 6.38 8 +4
HSLSDC Dražen Budiša 4.05 3 −22
HSU 3.97 3 +3
HDSS coalition Ivo Lončar 1.95 1 0
Minority lists
SDSS Vojislav Stanimirović 57.66 3 New
SDAH Šemso Tanković 59.10 1 New
DZMH Jene Adam 42.01 1 0
HSS Zdenka Čuhnil [hr] 39.21 1 0
NNZ–ZUPSH Nikola Mak 14.29 1 New
Independents Furio Radin 79.83 1 0
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Result by constituency.
Prime Minister before Subsequent Prime Minister
Ivica Račan
SDP
Ivo Sanader
HDZ
Results of the election based on the majority of votes in each municipality of Croatia
  HDZ
  SDP - IDS - Libra - LS
  HNS - PGS - SBHS
  HSS
  HSLS - DC
  NL Vlado Zec

General information

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There are 10 electoral units based on geography and population. In each unit, 14 candidates are elected on proportional electoral system. The election threshold is 5%.

In addition, 8 candidates are elected to represent national minorities.

The citizens that live outside Croatian borders vote in a separate electoral unit. The number of representatives elected from this unit will be determined after the elections, based on how many people actually vote in Croatia, so that there is equal value of votes both inside and outside Croatia. For reference, the number of diaspora seats in the 2000-2003 Sabor was six.

Total: 140 domestic seats + 8 minority seats + 4 diaspora seats.[2]

Distribution of minority seats:[3]

Parties and coalitions

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Pre-election coalitions:[3]

  • DC and HSLS, in all electoral units
  • SDP and IDS, in the 8th electoral unit (the county of Istria et al.)
  • HB and HIP, in all electoral units
  • SDP and Libra in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 10th electoral unit
  • SDP and LS, in the 4th and 6th electoral unit
  • HNS and SBHS, in the 4th and 5th electoral unit (counties of Slavonia)
  • HNS and PGS, in the 7th and 8th electoral unit (Northern seacoast counties)

Opinion polls

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Date Polling Organisation/Client Sample size HDZ SDP HNS-LD HSS HSLS Other Undecided Lead
Nov 2003 Prizma 32% 17% 10% 9% 9% 15%
17 Nov 2003 Večernji list 1800 30.3% 23.3% 6.4% 4.7% 7%
14 Nov 2003 Media Metar 1000 24.3% 22.4% 9.6% 8.2% 1.9%
7 Nov 2003 Prizma 35.4% 24.1% 9.5% 7.6% 4.8% 11.4%
3 Nov 2003 Večernji list 22.3% 17.4% 4.9%
28 Oct 2003 Nacional 33.8% 21.6% 6.4% 8.0% 5.7% 12.2%
25 Oct 2003 Jutarnji list 24.9% 15.5% 6% 9.4% 8.4% 14.6% 9.4%
Sep 2003 Večernji list 21.9% 20.6% 1.3%
Sep 2003 Puls 28% 18% 8% 11% 9% 10%
20 June 2003 IRI - 23% 16% 9% 9% 4% 22% 7%
26 March 2003 Unknown - 22% 13% 9% 10% 9%
17–18 February 2003 Globus 700 21.6% 18.5% 9.4% 7.5% 5.5% 19.1% 3.1%

Results

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The number of diaspora mandates was reduced by two compared to previous elections due to somewhat lower diaspora turnout. Due to distribution according to the d'Hondt method, the independent lists for diaspora were not allocated seats even if they received more than 5% of the total votes.

PartyVotes%Seats
Croatian Democratic Union840,69233.9166
SDPIDSSLDLS560,59322.6143
HNSPGSSBHS198,7818.0211
Croatian Peasant Party177,3597.159
HSPZDSMS158,0736.388
HSLSDC100,3354.053
Croatian Party of Pensioners98,5373.973
HČSPHKDUHDSS–HDC–DPS48,4191.951
HIPCroatian Bloc37,9541.530
DEMOKRŠĆANIHKDS [hr]–HGSS–HDRS [hr]–JHS26,2811.060
Croatian Party of Rights 186118,8750.760
ZS–SNA POKRET ZELENIH–PGSU–ZELENI SND16,4010.660
BV TREĆI BLOK–SU15,5910.630
Socialist Labour Party of Croatia15,5150.630
Greens of Croatia15,0900.610
HPS–HP11,7180.470
Democratic Social Union – Power of the People10,6640.430
ASH–JSD8,1230.330
Croatian Veterans' Party [hr]6,2800.250
Istrian Social Democratic Forum5,6850.230
Rule of Law Alliance4,5240.180
POL–INS4,3560.180
Croatian Independent Democrats3,9000.160
Croatian Workers Party3,8290.150
Democratic Party of Pensioners3,7390.150
Croatian Plans Party3,2950.130
Democratic Alliance of Greens2,9650.120
Croatian Republican Union2,2690.090
Croatian People's Peasant Party 19041,6410.070
Croatian Republicans1,5410.060
Homeland Civic Party [hr]1,5340.060
Croatian European Party1,2010.050
Social Democratic Union of Croatia1,1130.040
Christian Social Union (Croatia) [hr]6760.030
Croatian Dalmatian Home5510.020
Democratic Action of the People of Croatia3770.020
Serb People's Party3500.010
Independent Democratic Serb Party2560.010
Party of Croatian Revival1380.010
Independents69,7462.810
National minorities8
Total2,478,967100.00152
Valid votes2,478,96798.37
Invalid/blank votes41,0411.63
Total votes2,520,008100.00
Registered voters/turnout4,087,55361.65
Source: State Election Committee, IFES

Minority seats

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National minorities elected 8 representatives through a separate election system: Vojislav Stanimirović (22,2% of votes), Milorad Pupovac (21,7%) and Ratko Gajica (13,8%) for the Serb national minority, Jene Adam (42%) for the Hungarian minority, Furio Radin (79,8%) for the Italian minority, Zdenka Čuhnil (39,2%) for the Czech and Slovak minorities, Nikola Mak (14,3%) for the Austrian, Bulgarian, German, Jewish, Polish, Roma, Romanian, Rusyn, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vlach minorities and Šemso Tanković (59,1%) for the Albanian, Bosniak, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Slovene minorities.

Aftermath

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Ivo Sanader of the Croatian Democratic Union was appointed as prime minister by the President and confirmed by the Croatian Parliament.

The new government was formed of 13 HDZ ministers and one from the Democratic Centre.[4]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Odluka o raspisivanju izbora za zastupnike u Hrvatskom saboru". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
  2. ^ Izvješće OESS/ODIHR-ove izborne promatračke misije, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, pdf
  3. ^ a b "Službeni rezultati izbora za zastupnike u Hrvatski Sabor" [Official results of the election of representatives for the Croatian Parliament]. Izbori.hr. Croatian State Election Committee. 2003-12-03. Archived from the original on 2012-06-01. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  4. ^ "VLADA Republike Hrvatske - kronologija. Vlada: 9 / predsjednik Vlade: Dr. sc. Ivo Sanader". Archived from the original on 2012-07-10. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
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