Croatian Election Results Delayed

Croatia’s 2007 parliamentary election has concluded, but potential voting fraud at three polling stations has delayed the release of official results pending a re-vote.

Croatia’s parliamentary election was held on Sunday, November 25, 2007. Preliminary results indicate that incumbent party Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has won the election, but did not earn enough seats to form a majority government. Both HDZ and the Social Democrat Party (SDP) are talking to other parties to form majority coalitions.

The tentative results reveal the following structure of the new Parliament (seats by party):

• Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) - 61
• Social Democrat Party (SDP) - 56
• Croatian Peasant’s Party (HSS)/Croatian Liberal Party (HSLS) Coalition - 8
• Croatian People’s Party (HNS) - 7

Minorities are guaranteed 8 seats, and the remaining 12 will most likely represent the diaspora. A parliamentary majority of 77 seats is required to govern.

Due to a scheduled re-vote at three polling stations on December 9, official results will not be released until at least December 11. The voting needs to be repeated because of reports that boxes contained more ballots than there were voters. Branko Hrvatin, President of the Croatian State Electoral Committee, indicated that these votes will not affect the overall election, however, they are legally bound to repeat the vote at those stations.

The speed at which the Croatian State Electoral Committee acted on reports of potential fraud is amazing, especially compared to the reaction of Ukraine’s Central Election Committee during their 2004 presidential election. It is amazing how easily things work when corruption is not involved. Croatia should be highly praised for their efforts to conduct a fair election.

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