General Election, 17 April 2024

On 17 April 2024, Croatia held parliamentary elections for the 151 seats in parliament. By the end of the election, no party had secured an absolute majority – a trend continued from the past three elections since 2015. The electoral management body  is the State Election Commission of Croatia. The Election Commission has nine members including a president, four vice-presidents and four other commissioners. During parliamentary elections, MPs are elected from 10 electoral districts. Croatian voters residing outside the country elect three representatives while Croatian minorities are entitled to eight representatives (Electoral Commission n.d.). Croatia updated the legal framework on constituencies in 2023, reviewing the constituency boundaries to improve the equality of the vote (OSCE 2024).

Sitting President of Croatia Zoran Milanović decided to serve as an unofficial prime ministerial candidate for "Rivers of Justice” - a list led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) (IFIMES 2024). The Constitutional Court ruled against this unprecedented move (IFIMES 2024). Specifically, the Court found Milanović’s bid unconstitutional since the President (by Article 96) is meant to be non-partisan (International IDEA 2024a). It prohibited any candidature on his part while still in post as a ‘constitutional coup d'état’ (Reuters 2024; IFIMES 2024). The Court’s decision came against a backdrop of power struggle between the President as against incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and his conservative HDZ/EPP coalition (IFIMES n.d.). 

On 17 February, less than 100 days before polling, anti-government demonstrations took place in Zagreb, the Capital, protesting the appointment of Ivan Turudić as Attorney General – allegedly of interest to Croatia's office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (Bronic 2024). A rare instance of unity among several opposition parties , the protests demanded an earlier election with immediate dismissal of parliament (People’s Dispatch 2024). 

A lack of public trust in the political establishment was confirmed in a Crobarometer opinion poll on political, economic and social issues – which indicated that 70 per cent of Croatian respondents believed their country “was headed in the wrong direction” while 65 per cent did not trust government policies (Szpala and Wankiewicz 2024). However, any expectations of continued voter disengagement were overturned by a high turnout of 62.3 per cent; significantly up from 42 per cent in 2020.

A record 50 women MPs were elected, up 35 from 2020 (IPU Parline, 2024; International IDEA 2024b). Out of the 151 members elected, the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) won 61 seats; the SDP was second with 42 seats (IPU Parline 2024; International IDEA 2024a).

The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) conducted a needs assessment mission report, raising concerns regarding media freedom, especially in terms of state-sponsored advertising, lack of transparency and ‘strategically initiated’ lawsuits against journalists (OSCE 2024). Controversial “anti-leaks” amendments to the Criminal Code were made about a month before the election, in mid-March (International IDEA 2024a; IFIMES 2024; OSCE 2024). Croatia has a legal requirement for at least 40 per cent representation of each gender on candidate lists, but observers noted how some parties opt to pay the fine rather than comply. Overall ODIHR expressed confidence in the electoral administration, but there are still concerns that need to be addressed (OSCE 2024).