Croatian Chamber of Counties election, 1993

Croatian Chamber of Counties election, 1993

February 7, 1993 → 1997

63 out of a possible 68 seats to the Županijski dom.   First party Second party   Leader Franjo Tuđman Dražen Budiša Party HDZ HSLS Seats won 39 16 Popular vote 1,013,365 486,210 Percentage 45.49% 21.83%

Elected Speaker Josip Manolić HDZ

Chamber of Counties election were held for the first time in Croatia on 7 August 1993.^[1] The result was a victory for the Croatian Democratic Union, which won 37 of the 63 elected seats. Voter turnout was 64.3%.^[2]

Background

Under the new constitution adopted in 1990, the Croatian Parliament was bicameral. The lower house had been elected in 1992 and its representatives had passed laws creating new territorial organisations of Croatia. This included counties that were to be represented by the upper house – the Chamber of Counties.

Each county elected three members, while the President had the right to appoint five members, known as "Virils".^[3] The electoral law made each county a district that was to elect three representatives on the basis of proportional representation.

In practice, the use of proportional representation in such small districts led to a single party – the Croatian Democratic Union – being grossly overrepresented because sometimes even with less than third of the votes guaranteed two of the three seats.

The elections were marked by an uncharacteristically intense campaign directed towards single region – Istria. Government of Franjo Tuđman has invested great effort to defeat the Istrian Democratic Assembly, concerned about party's good result during 1992 elections. This effort backfired, resulting in record vote for the IDS.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats
Croatian Democratic Union	1,013,365	45.5	37
Croatian Social Liberal Party	486,210	21.8	16
Croatian Peasant Party	258,953	11.6	5
Istrian Democratic Assembly	76,273	3.4	3
HSLS-HNS	45,657	2.0	–
Party of Democratic Changes	41,955	1.9	1
HSLS-HNS-SDP	35,937	1.6	–
HSLS-HNS-HKDU-SDP	33,246	1.5	–
Croatian Christian Democratic Union	27,584	1.2	0
Dalmatian Action	26,303	1.2	0
RDS-IDS	22,801	1.0	–
HSLS-SDP	21,478	1.0	–
SDP-HSS	18,312	0.8	–
Social Democratic Union	17,413	0.8	0
Croatian People's Party	15,363	0.7	1
Other parties	64,351	2.9	0
Independents	22,562	1.01	0
Appointed members	-	-	5
Invalid/blank votes	76,019	–	–
Total	2,303,782	64.3	68
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

1. ^ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p410 ISBN 9873832956097
2. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p417
3. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p419