Croatian Elections
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Every Croatian parliamentary election from the first multi-party vote of 1990 to April 2024, and every presidential election from 1992 to 2024-25.
Source: Wikipedia election articles · as of 2026-10-23
Sabor seats
151
76 for a majority
Elections since 1990
19
April 2024
HDZ
61 seats, the most for a fourth straight election
Parliamentary elections
Every Croatian parliamentary election in the source, newest first, from the first multi-party vote of 1990 to April 2024. The 1990 election chose the Sabor of the Socialist Republic of Croatia inside Yugoslavia, and its row counts the seats of all three chambers as one body.
Hung parliaments and Plenković · 2015-2024
November 2015 produced a hung parliament, with the Patriotic Coalition on 59 seats, Croatia is Growing on 56 and the new Most list on 19. A no-confidence motion against Tihomir Orešković led to the snap election of September 2016, in which the HDZ coalition won 61 seats. Andrej Plenković's HDZ won again in July 2020 with 66 seats on a turnout of 46.44%, and in April 2024, the fourth straight election in which it won the most seats.
Croatian Democratic Union coalition 61Rivers of Justice 42Homeland Movement coalition 14
HDZ-led coalition 66Restart Coalition 41DPMŠ-led coalition 16
HDZ Coalition 61People's Coalition 54Bridge of Independent Lists 13
Patriotic Coalition 59Croatia is Growing 56Bridge of Independents 19
Sanader to Milanović · 2007-2011
The HDZ won 66 seats to the SDP's 56 in November 2007. After Sanader's resignation in mid-2009, Jadranka Kosor succeeded him as Prime Minister, and in December 2011 the Kukuriku Coalition won 80 of 151 seats against 47 for the HDZ Coalition.
Račan and the opposition years · 2000-2003
The SDP and HSLS coalition won 71 of 151 seats on 3 January 2000 and Ivica Račan became Prime Minister. In November 2003 the HDZ returned with 66 seats, short of the 76 needed, and Ivo Sanader became Prime Minister on 23 December 2003 after a confidence vote.
Tuđman and the HDZ · 1990-1995
The first multi-party elections since 1938, on 22 to 23 April and 6 to 7 May 1990, chose a tricameral Sabor inside Yugoslavia, and the Croatian Democratic Union took 205 of the 351 seats decided. The first elections after independence, on 2 August 1992, gave it 85 of 138 seats on 44.71%. In October 1995 it won 75 of 127 seats, an absolute majority, and the source calls that the last election to date in which a single party won enough seats to govern alone.
Croatian Democratic Union 75HSS–IDS–HNS–HKDU–SBHS 16Croatian Social Liberal Party 11
Croatian Democratic Union 85Croatian Social Liberal Party 14Social Democratic Party 11
Croatian Democratic Union 205League of Communists of Croatia – Party of Democratic Changes 73SKH-SDP/SS-SSH joint candidates 17
Presidential elections
Every Croatian presidential election in the source, newest first, from the first popular vote on 2 August 1992 to the contest of December 2024 and January 2025. Tuđman won the first two in the first round; the other six went to a runoff. Before 1992 the source says Tuđman had been selected as president by Parliament, so there is no earlier popular vote. Not in the source, and so not shown: European, local and referendum votes.
From Josipović to Milanović · 2009-2025
Ivo Josipović became the first elected president nominated by the Social Democratic Party in 2009-10, with 60.26% in the runoff. In 2014-15 Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović beat him by 32,509 votes, 1.48%, to become the first woman president and the first from the HDZ since Tuđman, and Josipović was the first incumbent not to win a second term. Zoran Milanović, a former prime minister, beat her in the runoff of January 2020 with 52.66%, and in January 2025 won a second term with 74.68%, the highest runoff share on record.
Mesić and the constitutional change · 2000-2005
Tuđman died on 10 December 1999, which brought the first early presidential election, on 24 January 2000. It was the first to need a second round, which Stjepan Mesić of the Croatian People's Party won with 56.01% against Dražen Budiša, and the last held under the semi-presidential system. Constitutional reforms of November 2000 replaced it with an incomplete parliamentary system and greatly reduced the president's powers. Mesić, now an independent because the constitution bars the president from party membership, won again in the runoff of 16 January 2005 with 65.93% against Jadranka Kosor, the first woman to reach a runoff.
Tuđman's presidency · 1992-1997
Franjo Tuđman won the first popular presidential election, on 2 August 1992, with 57.83% in a field of eight, and the 1,519,100 votes he received are, the source says, the most any presidential candidate has won. International observers criticised the vote for the HDZ-friendly timing and opposition access to state media. He was re-elected in the first round on 15 June 1997 with 61.41% on a turnout of 54.62%, after OSCE observers judged the process leading up to it fundamentally flawed. The president then had the most power in the government and could appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister and cabinet.
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout
From 75.61% in 1992 to 46.44% in 2020, the lowest on record, then 62.31% in 2024. The 1990 row has no turnout.
The largest party's seat share
The HDZ's 85 of 138 seats in 1992 (61.6%) is the highest on record, ahead of 58.4% in 1990 and 59.1% in 1995. Since 2000 the largest list has held between 39.1% and 53.0% of the seats, the Kukuriku Coalition's 80 of 151 in 2011 the largest share.
Records & superlatives
Highest presidential turnout
74.9%
1992, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest presidential turnout
43.9%
2009–10
Largest presidential win
74.7%
Zoran Milanović, 2024–25
Narrowest presidential win
50.7%
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, 2014–15
Highest turnout
75.6%
1992, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest turnout
46.4%
2020
Highest vote share
45.2%
Croatian Democratic Union, 1995
Most seats won
205
Croatian Democratic Union, 1990
How Croatian elections work
Three chambers in 1990
The election of 22 to 23 April and 6 to 7 May 1990 filled a Sabor of three chambers: 80 seats in the Social-Political Council, 115 of 116 in the Council of Municipalities and 156 of 160 in the Council of Associated Labour. This hub counts them as one body, 351 seats decided of 356, as the article does.
What the source leaves out
Not shown: European, local and referendum votes, whose articles are not in the source used for this hub, and any popular vote for president before 1992, because the source says Tuđman had been selected by Parliament. The 1990 parliamentary row carries no turnout or vote shares, because the article prints them per chamber.
The presidency after 2000
Until the presidential election of January 2000 the president was the most powerful official in the government and could appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister and cabinet. Constitutional reforms of November 2000 replaced that semi-presidential system with an incomplete parliamentary system, greatly reducing the president's powers. Voters still elect the president directly for five years, in two rounds if nobody wins a majority in the first, and the constitution bars the president from party membership.
How seats are won
The Sabor has 151 members: 140 from ten 14-seat districts by open-list proportional representation with the D'Hondt method and a 5% threshold, 3 from a district for Croatian citizens abroad and 8 from a district for national minorities. The system changed often before that. In 1992 and 1995 parts of the house were elected in single-member constituencies.
Coalitions and hung parliaments
No party has won a majority alone since the HDZ in 1995, which the source calls the last time to date. The HDZ or the list it led won the most seats at each of the four elections from 2015 to 2024, and the next election is due by 30 April 2028.