ZAGREB, 10 July  2022 - Over 160 polling stations were opened on Sunday in Split for the second round of the snap mayoral elections in which Ivica Puljak of the Centar Party and Zoran Đogaš, an independent supported by the HDZ and HSS parties, are vying for the mayoral post in the second biggest Croatian city.

The first results of the runoff will be announced by the State Election Commission (DIP) after 2000 hrs Sunday.

In the first round of the early polls 14 days ago, Puljak finished as first and was short 1.3 percentage points for the outright victory. Đogaš came second with 25.67% of the vote on 26 June.

The other seven mayoral candidates won below 10% of the vote in the first round of the polls: Željko Kerum of the HGS (7.94%), Josip Markotić of the Bridge party (4.53%), Aris Zlodre of the Homeland Movement (3.89%). Davor Matijević of the Social Democratic Party (3.84%), Tamara Visković of the We Can and the New Left (1.85%), Kristina Vidan of Pametno za Split i Dalmaciju (1.28%) and independent Ante Franić (0.66%).

An early election was also held for the 31-seat city council on 26 June, and according to the returns from the polling stations, the Centar party won 42.47% of the vote. The slate of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) follows with 23.81%, while the HGS party of former mayor Kerum ranks  third with 7.11% of the vote. 

The other three slates that passed the 5% threshold are Bridge with 6.61% of the vote, the SDP/HSU with 5.75%, and the Homeland Movement (DP) with its partners HDS, HSP and Sovereignists (5.63%).

The turnout was 31.6% on 26 June.

The snap elections for the mayor and the city council were held 12 months after regular local elections in Croatia in May 2021. The early polls were called after Mayor Puljak and his two deputies tendered their resignations on 8 April following a scandal involving Deputy Mayor Bojan Ivošević, who threatened a local reporter and was subsequently indicted for intimidation on 23 March.

After their resignations, the members of the 31-seat city council also stepped down, paving the way for an early election for the city council.

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ZAGREB, 31 May 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Monday, commenting on the results of yesterday's local elections, that the biggest change had occurred in Zagreb.

"There is a change in Split, too, but a little different. The biggest change is in Zagreb. 65% of people voted for one group which is very liberal (...). Some of their ideas are experimental even for Copenhagen. That's a whole spectrum of green-left ideas which have found an audience and communicators in someone else, and once that was solely the SDP," he told the press.

Asked about the Zagreb mayoral campaign of the Homeland Movement, the president commented on the party's name and its president Miroslav Škoro.

"There is no homeland movement. A homeland movement can't be led by someone who fled from Osijek to America, drifting among various ex-pat clubs, but not Croatian ones (...) That's not a homeland movement, I don't recognize that. It's usurpation. That (term) should be protected, like the Croatian name."

Enforcing public holidays isn't good

Milanović also commented on the marking of Statehood Day on 30 May, saying that such "enforcing of public holidays" and of collective consciousness and emotions was not good.

He said that the date was imposed in 1991 as a holiday of the HDZ party and was later changed by politician Vlado Gotovac.

"Then comes Plenković, who has the need to prove that he has always been in the HDZ, despite hitching a ride at the last minute, and enforces, with a simple majority, a public holiday which is really a party holiday."

Milanović said he could accept 30 May as Croatian Parliament memorial day, which it had been for 20 years, but not as Statehood Day. In Croatia, one can only talk about Independence Day, which all European states have, he added.

"What kind of statehood are we talking about if it was created one Sunday in 1990 because one party won, by one election law, the majority in the parliament of a socialist republic within one multinational federation?"

Milanović said young people should be told the truth which, he added, was not bad for Croatia at all.

"Our path was just, fair, and eventually successful. As long as Croatian boys, based on decisions of Croatian bodies in Croatian people's defense secretariats, were conscripted by the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) for their military service, it's pointless to talk about independence or statehood as the HDZ sees it."

Only when that stopped, which it did after the lining up of the Croatian National Guard (in Zagreb in 1990), not one more young Croatian boy served in the JNA, Milanović said. "That's the divide."

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