# 2003 Croatian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 23 November 2003 to elect all 151 members of parliament. 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.

## General information

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.
Distribution of minority seats:
* Serbs: 3
* Hungarians: 1
* Italians: 1
* Czechs and Slovaks: 1
* Austrians, Bulgarians, Germans, Poles, Romani, Romanians, Rusyns, Russians, Turks, Ukrainians, Vlachs and Jews: 1
* Albanians, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Slovenes: 1

## Parties and coalitions

Pre-election coalitions:
* 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

| Date | Polling Organisation/Client | Sample size | HDZ | SDP | HNS | HSS | HSLS | 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

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.
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats |
| | Croatian Democratic Union | 840,692 | 33.91 | 66 |
| | SDP–IDS–SLD–LS | 560,593 | 22.61 | 43 |
| | HNS–PGS–SBHS | 198,781 | 8.02 | 11 |
| | Croatian Peasant Party | 177,359 | 7.15 | 9 |
| | HSP–ZDS–MS | 158,073 | 6.38 | 8 |
| | HSLS–DC | 100,335 | 4.05 | 3 |
| | Croatian Party of Pensioners | 98,537 | 3.97 | 3 |
| | HČSP–HKDU–HDSS–HDC–DPS | 48,419 | 1.95 | 1 |
| | HIP–Croatian Bloc | 37,954 | 1.53 | 0 |
| | DEMOKRŠĆANI–HKDS [hr]–HGSS–HDRS [hr]–JHS | 26,281 | 1.06 | 0 |
| | Croatian Party of Rights 1861 | 18,875 | 0.76 | 0 |
| | ZS–SNA POKRET ZELENIH–PGSU–ZELENI SND | 16,401 | 0.66 | 0 |
| | BV TREĆI BLOK–SU | 15,591 | 0.63 | 0 |
| | Socialist Labour Party of Croatia | 15,515 | 0.63 | 0 |
| | Greens of Croatia | 15,090 | 0.61 | 0 |
| | HPS–HP | 11,718 | 0.47 | 0 |
| | Democratic Social Union – Power of the People | 10,664 | 0.43 | 0 |
| | ASH–JSD | 8,123 | 0.33 | 0 |
| | Croatian Veterans' Party [hr] | 6,280 | 0.25 | 0 |
| | Istrian Social Democratic Forum | 5,685 | 0.23 | 0 |
| | Rule of Law Alliance | 4,524 | 0.18 | 0 |
| | POL–INS | 4,356 | 0.18 | 0 |
| | Croatian Independent Democrats | 3,900 | 0.16 | 0 |
| | Croatian Workers Party | 3,829 | 0.15 | 0 |
| | Democratic Party of Pensioners | 3,739 | 0.15 | 0 |
| | Croatian Plans Party | 3,295 | 0.13 | 0 |
| | Democratic Alliance of Greens | 2,965 | 0.12 | 0 |
| | Croatian Republican Union | 2,269 | 0.09 | 0 |
| | Croatian People's Peasant Party 1904 | 1,641 | 0.07 | 0 |
| | Croatian Republicans | 1,541 | 0.06 | 0 |
| | Homeland Civic Party [hr] | 1,534 | 0.06 | 0 |
| | Croatian European Party | 1,201 | 0.05 | 0 |
| | Social Democratic Union of Croatia | 1,113 | 0.04 | 0 |
| | Christian Social Union (Croatia) [hr] | 676 | 0.03 | 0 |
| | Croatian Dalmatian Home | 551 | 0.02 | 0 |
| | Democratic Action of the People of Croatia | 377 | 0.02 | 0 |
| | Serb People's Party | 350 | 0.01 | 0 |
| | Independent Democratic Serb Party | 256 | 0.01 | 0 |
| | Party of Croatian Revival | 138 | 0.01 | 0 |
| | Independents | 69,746 | 2.81 | 0 |
| National minorities | National minorities | | | 8 |
| Total | Total | 2,478,967 | 100.00 | 152 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 2,478,967 | 98.37 | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 41,041 | 1.63 | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 2,520,008 | 100.00 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 4,087,553 | 61.65 | |
| Source: State Election Committee, IFES |||||

### Minority seats

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

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.