2016 Croatian parliamentary election

2016 Croatian parliamentary election
Croatia
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All 151 seats in the Croatian Parliament
76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout54.62% (Decrease 8.44pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
HDZ-led coalition Andrej Plenković 36.58 61 +2
People's Coalition Zoran Milanović 33.45 54 −2
Most Božo Petrov 9.84 13 −6
Only Option Ivan Vilibor Sinčić 6.17 8 +7
For Prime Minister Milan Bandić 4.05 2 0
IDSPGSRl Boris Miletić 2.27 3 0
HDSSBHKS Dragan Vulin 1.24 1 −1
Independents Željko Glasnović 0.31 1 +1
Minority lists
SDSS Vojislav Stanimirović 83.55 3 0
Kali Sara Veljko Kajtazi 53.16 1 0
DZMH Róbert Jankovics 53.02 1 +1
UARH Ermina Lekaj Prljaskaj 25.31 1 +1
Independents 2 −1
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Result by constituency
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after
Tihomir Orešković
Independent
Andrej Plenković
HDZ

Parliamentary elections were held in Croatia on 11 September 2016, with all 151 seats in the Croatian Parliament up for election. The elections were preceded by a successful motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković and his cabinet on 16 June 2016, with 125 MPs voting in favour of the proposal. A subsequent attempt by the Patriotic Coalition to form a new parliamentary majority, with Minister of Finance Zdravko Marić as Prime Minister, failed and the Parliament voted to dissolve itself on 20 June 2016. The dissolution took effect on 15 July 2016, which made it possible for President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović to officially call for elections on 11 September 2016. These were the ninth parliamentary elections since the 1990 multi-party elections.

The elections were contested by the two largest parties in the outgoing eighth Parliament; the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), led by Andrej Plenković, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) led by Zoran Milanović. The SDP contested the election as part of the People's Coalition, consisting of the SDP, HNS, HSS and HSU. They were also challenged by a number of other parties and coalitions, including the Bridge of Independent Lists (Most), which held the balance of power after the 2015 elections. The incumbent Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković, a non-partisan technocrat, announced that he would not be running on any party's candidate list and would not seek reelection.

The election resulted in a victory of HDZ with 61 seats in the parliament, while the People's Coalition won 54 seats. Andrej Plenković started talks about forming a governing majority with Most, which won 13 seats. Zoran Milanović announced his withdrawal from politics after the defeat. A few weeks after the election HDZ and Most concluded talks on forming a government, which would also include the 8 Members of Parliament representing national minorities. On 10 October 2016 Plenković formally presented 91 signatures of support by MPs to President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, therefore far more than the necessary majority of 76 signatures and he was thus made Prime Minister-designate with a 30-day mandate to form a government until 9 November 2016. The 9th Assembly of the Croatian Parliament was constituted on 14 October with the election of Most leader Božo Petrov as Speaker. On 19 October a parliamentary vote of 91 in favor, 45 against and 3 abstentions formally confirmed Croatia's 14th government cabinet since the first multi-party elections in 1990, with Andrej Plenković as Croatia's 12th Prime Minister. The new cabinet consisted of 20 ministers, including Goran Marić, a minister without portfolio who was on later tasked with leading the newly formed Ministry of State Property.