Today Croatia decides who will run the country for the next four years as we vote for the eight assembly of the national parliament, the legislative branch of the government. This general elections are considered to be the most uncertain in our democratic history as two coalitions led by left wing Social-Democratic Party (SDP) and right wing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) are predicted to have almost equal amount of votes, with ‘third way’ smaller parties getting more popularity among the constituency. It is likely Croatia will have a minority government.
Croatia is a parliamentary, representative democratic republic with a multi-party system. The executive branch is divided into Government headed by a Prime Minister and the President who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but the institute of President is mostly decorative and focuses on diplomatic representation while the Government has real executive powers in peacetime.
The Government is formed by vote of confidence from the Parliament and is overseen by it, with the President symbolically offering the privilege of forming it to the leader of the party that has most support from elected representatives.
The first unofficial polls are set to go out at 7pm, when the voting booths close, with definite results due Monday morning.
