Local Elections
See also: Counties of Croatia and Administrative divisions of CroatiaCroatia's county prefects, city and town mayors are elected to four-year terms by a majority of votes cast within applicable local government units, with a runoff election if no candidate achieves a majority in the first round of voting. Members of county, city and municipal councils are elected to four-year terms through proportional representation, with the entire local government unit as a single constituency. The number of council members is defined by the councils themselves, based on applicable legislation. Electoral committees are tasked with determining whether the national minorities are represented in the council (as required by the constitution), adding further members to the council (who belong to the appropriate minorities) by selecting them from unelected-candidate lists. Election silence, as in all other elections in Croatia, is enforced on the day of the elections and the previous day, ending at 7:00 pm when the polling stations close and exit polls may be announced.
Of the six nationwide local elections held in Croatia since 1990, the most recent were the 2009 local elections to elect county prefects and councils, city and town councils and mayors. In these elections, HDZ-led coalitions won a majority or plurality in 15 county-council and 13 county-prefect elections. SDP-led coalitions won a majority or plurality in five county councils (including the city of Zagreb council), and the single remaining county council election was won by an IDS-SDP coalition. The SDP won four county prefect elections and the city of Zagreb mayoral election, the HSS won three county-prefect elections, and the HNS and HDSSB won one county-prefect election each.
| Results of Croatian local elections, 2009 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| County | County council | County prefect/Zagreb mayor | |||||
| Plurality | Turnout | Prefect/Mayor | Turnout | Notes | |||
| Bjelovar-Bilogora | HDZ (28.9%) | 44.0% | Miroslav Čačija, HSS (64.4%) | 44.0% | first round win | ||
| Brod-Posavina | HDZ (32.2%) | 47.8% | Danijel Marušić, HDZ (50.9%) | 36.2% | runoff election | ||
| Dubrovnik-Neretva | HDZ (46.7%) | 55.4% | Nikola Dobroslavić, HDZ (53.6%) | 49.1% | runoff election | ||
| Istria | IDS (44.8%) | 49.6% | Ivan Jakovčić, IDS (59.6%) | 38.2% | runoff election | ||
| Karlovac | HDZ (48.3%) | 46.3% | Ivan Vučić, HDZ (58.7%) | 30.3% | runoff election | ||
| Koprivnica-Križevci | SDP (45.9%) | 53.1% | Darko Koren, HSS (51.2%) | 53.1% | first round win | ||
| Krapina-Zagorje | SDP (46.3%) | 52.7% | Siniša Hajdaš Dončić, SDP (53.0%) | 52.7% | first round win | ||
| Lika-Senj | HDZ (69.9%) | 50.5% | Milan Jurković, HDZ (68.5%) | 50.5% | first round win | ||
| Međimurje | SDP (40.0%) | 50.2% | Ivan Perhoč, SDP (62.8%) | 37.3% | runoff election | ||
| Osijek-Baranja | HDZ (34.7%) | 49.2% | Vladimir Šišljagić, HDSSB (54.1%) | 38.7% | runoff election | ||
| Požega-Slavonia | HDZ (40.4%) | 49.9% | Marijan Aladrović, HDZ (53.0%) | 43.7% | runoff election | ||
| Primorje-Gorski Kotar | SDP (52.3%) | 44.1% | Zlatko Komadina, SDP (60.5%) | 44.1% | first round win | ||
| Sisak-Moslavina | HDZ (40.1%) | 44.4% | Marina Lovrić, SDP (50.9%) | 44.4% | first round win | ||
| Split-Dalmatia | HDZ (31.7%) | 49.3% | Ante Sanader, HDZ (58.7%) | 42.8% | runoff election | ||
| Šibenik-Knin | HDZ (35.6%) | 46.8% | Goran Pauk, HDZ (62.7%) | 30.2% | runoff election | ||
| Varaždin | HNS (52.9%) | 57.7% | Predrag Štromar, HNS (51.6%) | 57.7% | first round win | ||
| Virovitica-Podravina | HDZ (53.7%) | 50.0% | Tomislav Tolušić, HDZ (57.0%) | 49.7% | first round win | ||
| Vukovar-Syrmia | HDZ (59.2%) | 42.2% | Božo Galić, HDZ (67.9%) | 43.2% | first round win | ||
| Zadar | HDZ (63.3%) | 44.8% | Stipe Zrilić, HDZ (62.9%) | 44.8% | first round win | ||
| Zagreb County | HDZ (42.3%) | 45.8% | Stjepan Kožić, HSS (51.1%) | 45.8% | first round win | ||
| City of Zagreb | SDP (33.3%) | 41.7% | Milan Bandić, SDP (61.8%) | 33.6% | runoff election | ||
Read more about this topic: Elections In Croatia
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