Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 25 November 2007 and for overseas voters on 24 and 25 November. President announces elections The campaign officially started on 3 November. The President of Croatia announced elections on 17 October and 14 days were allowed for candidate lists to be submitted.

Elections were held in 10 electoral districts inside Croatia (each providing 14 members of parliament), Law defining electorates one electoral district for Croatian citizens living abroad (with a maximum 12 members of parliament), and one electoral district for national minorities (8 members of parliament). Candidate lists have to win more than 5% of the votes in at least one electoral district in order to be represented in the parliament. 4,478,386 people in total were eligible to vote, 405,092 of whom are in the diaspora, 280,000 living in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Središnji državni ured za upravu: Pravo glasa na parlamentarnim izborima ostvaruje 4 478 386 birača Večernji list: Četiri milijuna građana na izborima

To prevent possible electoral fraud, such as votes from the deceased, or people voting twice in different locations, the Croatians outside Croatia who were eligible to vote had to register no later than 14 days before the election.

In three locales, the election were repeated on 9 December 2007; while this could not and did not change the final result as far as mandates are concerned, it meant the final result became known only on 11 December 2007.

The governing centre-right Croatian Democratic Union emerged as the relative winner of the election, but failed to obtain an outright majority. The opposition centre-left Social Democratic Party of Croatia achieved their best result ever as a party, but were unsuccessful in their attempt to become the strongest single party. The election resulted in the formation of the Sanader II cabinet supported by HDZ, HSS, HSLS and the representatives of national minorities.

Participating parties Croatian political parties and independent lists had to formally submit their candidates and eventual pre-election coalitions not later than 30 October. 3585 people from political parties or independent lists applied for the elections (22 people per seat). There were 235 political party lists, 16 independent lists and 72 candidates for minority seats. 29.93% of the candidates were women. The average age of the candidates was 43.41 years old; 44.70 for men, and 40.40 for women. The oldest candidate was 89, and the youngest 18. The State Electoral Committee had to confirm the lists before midnight of 2 November. News about electoral lists on Net.hr Announcement regarding electoral lists

Parliamentary parties and coalitions

Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Social Democratic Party (SDP) Croatian Peasant Party–Croatian Social Liberal Party-Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar-Democratic Party of Zagorje-Zagorje Party) (HSS-HSLS-PGS-ZDS-ZS) Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats (HNS) Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) Croatian Party of Right (HSP) Croatian Democratic Alliance of Slavonia and Baranja (HDSSB) Croatian Party of Pensioners (coalition with Democratic Party of Pensioners) (HSU) Democratic Centre-Green Party – Green Alternative (DC-Zeleni) Independent Democratic Serb Party (national minorities electorate and 9th electorate) (SDSS) Political parties and lists of national minorities (12th electorate)

Parliamentary parties are with bolded acronyms.

Non-parliamentary parties Croatian Youth Party (HSM) Croatian Democratic Peasants' Party (HDSS) Croatian Pure Party of Right (HČSP) Croatian Christian Democratic Union (HKDU) Croatian Christian Democrats (Demokršćani) United Supporters of the Croatian Party of Right Movement (HP-HPP) Green List of Croatia (Zelena lista) Only Croatia – Movement for Croatia (Jedino Hrvatska)

Non-parliamentary coalitions "Left Coalition": Left of Croatia-Socialist Labour Party of Croatia-Istrian Social Democratic Forum-Croatian Socialdemocrats (Ljevica-SRP-ISDF-HSD) "United Left": Social Democratic Action of Croatia-Croatian Labour Party-Green Party-Adriatic Social Democratic Party of Croatia. In some electorates also with Women's Democratic Party. (ASH-HRS-ZS-JSD-DSŽ) Croatian Christian Democratic Party–Christian Social Union (HKSS-KSU) Democratic Union of Međimurje–Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party–Dalmatian Liberal Party (in some electorates with Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar) (DSM-SBHS-DLS-PGS) Greens of Croatia-Women's Democratic Party (Zeleni HR-DSŽ) Party of Pensioners-Istrian Social Democratic Independent Party (SU-ISDNS)

Independent Lists Slaven Letica Boris Mikšić Hrvoje Hitrec hina.hr on Hitrec's list Ivan Lončar Drago Krpina Tonči Tadić Jerko Ivanković Lijanović

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

Announced boycotts Marginal right wing Croatian Party of Right 1861 decided not to participate in the 2007 elections as they claimed the elections were unconstitutional.Following parliamentary elections 25 November 2007 in the Croatia will be unconstitutional not free and undemocratically

Election spending

On 11 December 2007 GONG and Transparency International Croatia had published media spending of all Croatian political parties during the election period. This numbers are :

Croatian Democratic Union 25,476,833 HRK or 51.9% of total Social Democratic Party of Croatia 8,150,728 HRK or 16.6% of total Croatian Peasant Party-Croatian Social Liberal Party 4,923,277 HRK or 10.0% of total Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats 4,204,998 HRK or 8.6% of total Croatian Party of Right 3,082,071 HRK or 6.1% of total Istrian Democratic Assembly 611,406 HRK or 1.2% of total Croatian Party of Pensioners 520,362 HRK or 1.1% of total Only Croatia – Movement for Croatia 348,686 HRK or 0.7% of total Democratic Centre 329,151 HRK or 0.7 of total Croatian Democratic Alliance of Slavonia and Baranja 283,212 HRK or 0.6% of total

Electoral districts

Since 1999 Croatia has been divided into 10 geographically-based electorates with around 250 000 - 300 000 registered voters. Each electorate elects up to 14 MPs chosen by the standard D'Hondt formula.

In the 11th electorate, up to 12 members are chosen by proportional representation - depending on a number of voters in Croatia - to represent Croatian citizens residing abroad (known as the diaspora electorate) and 8 members from ethnic/national minorities.

In Croatia, the official threshold is 5% for parties and coalitions. However, since the country is divided in 10 voting districts with 14 elected representatives each, sometimes the threshold can be higher, depending on the number of "fallen lists" (lists that don't get at least 5%). If many votes are lost in this manner, a list that gets barely more than 5% will still get a seat, whereas if there is a small number of parties that all pass the threshold, the actual ("natural") threshold is close to 7.15%.

This system is greatly favorable to regional parties, i.e. parties that gain their votes in a single electorate (see IDS, HDSSB), and it is disfavorable to parties that have greater numbers but are widespread throughout the nation (see HSU and HSP).

This made also the forming of post-electoral coalitions somewhat unpredictable, as the overall success of one of the greatest parties can effectively turn out to be counterproductive if it is achieved at the expense of their foreseeable partner, causing them to not pass the threshold in some or all electorates (it happened to the HDZ-led coalition in previous 2003 election).

Opinion polls DatePolling Organisation/ClientSample sizeHDZSDPHNS-LDHSSHSPHSLSHSUOtherUndecidedLead11/2007Puls1,30032.5%33.4%5.9%6.6%3.8%(HSS-HSLS)4.8%0.9%11/2007Media Metar1,30033.9%36.2%6.8%5.4%5.2%(HSS-HSLS)5.7%2.3%11/2007CRO Demoskop1,30028.5%31.2%5.2%5.5%4.6%(HSS-HSLS)6.2%2.7%10/2007Puls1,30028.7%30.9%5.1%5.6%5.0%(HSS-HSLS)5.9%2.2%10/2007CRO Demoskop1,30026.4%30.1%5.8%7.3%6.4%(HSS-HSLS)6.0%3.7%9/2007Puls1,30026.5%31.6%5.3%5.9%6.9%(HSS-HSLS)6.5%5.1%9/2007CRO Demoskop1,30025.6%29.2%5.6%7.8%6.8%(HSS-HSLS)5.6%3.6%8/2007Puls1,30024%29%5%9%8%(HSS-HSLS)8%5.0%7/2007Puls1,30025.5%30.1%5.8%6.8%7.6%(HSS-HSLS)6.4%4.6%6/2007Puls1,30023.2%30.0%6.3%5.1%9.0%(HSS-HSLS)6.9%6.8%5/2007Puls1,30024.5%28.7%8.5%6.4%7.3%(HSS-HSLS)6.5%4.2%4/2007Puls1,30023.1%20.4%9.1%10.4%8.5%(HSS-HSLS)7.6%2.7%3/2007Puls1,30022.8%18.8%10.4%7.7%6.6%3.8%7.6%4.0%2/2007Puls1,30023.4%19.5%9%9.6%8.8%4.2%6.3%3.9%12/2006Puls1,30021%16%9%10%8%5%6%5.0%12/2006CRO Demoskop1,30023.9%24.3%8.6%6.4%8.2%3.5%5.2%13.7%0.4%10/2006CRO Demoskop1,30026.1%25.7%8.6%5.9%8.0%4.5%5.1%10.4%0.4%9/2006CRO Demoskop1,30026.4%25.5%7.9%5.8%8.1%4.1%5.0%11.3%0.9%8/2006CRO Demoskop1,30026.3%25.2%8.1%5.7%8.1%4.0%5.1%11.1%1.1%7/2006CRO Demoskop1,30026.2%25.3%8.1%5.2%8.2%3.9%4.8%12.4%0.9%6/2006CRO Demoskop1,30026.2%26.1%7.6%5.4%8.2%3.9%5.1%11.7%0.1%5/2006CRO Demoskop1,30025.0%26.7%6.9%5.4%8.0%3.7%4.8%13.4%1.7%4/2006CRO Demoskop1,30025.2%27.5%7.3%4.3%8.0%3.5%4.1%13.5%2.3%3/2006CRO Demoskop1,30025.8%26.5%6.7%5.6%8.5%4.6%5.1%12.5%0.7%2/2006CRO Demoskop1,30026.4%25.5%7.4%5.7%9.3%4.6%3.9%11.8%0.9%1/2006CRO Demoskop1,30024.1%26.3%7.2%5.4%10.4%3.5%4.0%14.2%2.2%12/2005Puls1,00019.4%22.2%5.7%9.7%14.2%4.5%7.9%2.8%12/2005CRO Demoskop1,30021.6%26.9%6.6%5.2%12.2%2.9%4.1%14.1%5.3%11/2005CRO Demoskop1,30024.9%26.8%7%4.7%11%2.6%3.7%13.4%1.9%10/2005CRO Demoskop1,30025.5%25.1%7.3%5.1%11.7%2%3.7%12.1%0.4%9/2005Mediana fides1,00626.9%34.1% - -12.7% - -7.2%9/2005Puls20.0%22.0%7.0%8.0%13.0%4.0%10.0%2.0%9/2005CRO Demoskop1,30024.4%25.6%8.1%4.7%11.6%2.2%3.6%12.1%1.2%8/2005CRO Demoskop1,30024.8%25.4%8%5.1%10.9%2.8%3.1%12.2%0.6%7/2005CRO Demoskop1,30025.4%25.3%7.3%5.2%10.8%2.4%3.2%11.8%0.1%6/2005CRO Demoskop1,30025.3%24.8%6.8%6.5%10.8%2.1%3.6%13%0.5%5/2005CRO Demoskop1,30025.3%25%7.3%6.2%10.8%2.5%3.5%10.7%0.3%4/2005Mediana -13.8%19.8%3.4%2.5%7% - - 6.0%4/2005CRO Demoskop1,30026.2%26%8.2%5.6%9.3%2.4%2.1%13.7%0.2%3/2005CRO Demoskop1,30027.1%26.8%8.7%4.9%9.7%2.1%2.1%13.4%0.3%2/2005Večernji list1,30024.6%26.7%9.8% -8.3% - -3.1%2/2005CRO Demoskop1,30027.7%27.4%9.9%5.6%8%2.4%1.5%12.2%0.3%1/2005CRO Demoskop1,30027.1%25.8%9.3%6.6%8.1%3%1.2%14.4%1.3%12/2004CRO Demoskop1,30027.4%25%10.3%4,8%7.1%4.2%1.2%14.1%2.4%11/2004Večernji list1,30022.8%22.4% - - - - -0.4%11/2004CRO Demoskop1,30028.2%24.2%9.6%5.1%8.2%2.8%2%13,9%4.0%10/2004Večernji list1,30027.0%18.9% - - - - -7.1%7/2004Promocija plus1,30033.3%23.2%10.5%4.2%3.0%7.32.1%10.1%6/2004Promocija plus1,30031.8%22.8% - - - - -9.0%3/2004Promocija plus1,30032.9%21.6%8.5%3.3%6.5%1.5%3.8%11.3%2/2004Promocija plus1,30031.9%18.9%10.5%4.2%4.4% -4.4%13.0%23 Nov2003 parliamentary election2,478,96733.9%22.6%8.0%7.2%6.4%4.0%4.0%N/A11.3%

Results