2,669 candidates running for 151 seats in the Croatian parliament

(Photo: Vlada Republike Hrvatske/CC license)

ZAGREB, June 18 (Hina) – Electioneering for the July 5 parliamentary election has officially started after the State Electoral Commission (DIP) released valid slates and candidates on its web site on Thursday, and it will last until midnight July 3.

DIP chair Djuro Sessa said that 2,669 candidates would be running for 151 parliamentary seats. Around 7,000 polling stations will be opened for the elections.

15 more slates submitted than four years ago

DIP has accepted 192 slates in 11 constituencies, 15 more than for the parliamentary elections in 2016.

Of the 192 slates, 92 are coalition and five are independent slates. There are 69 political parties in 11 constituencies. The number of slates is not the same in every constituency, and it ranges from 13 in Constituency No. 5 to 22 in Constituency No. 7.

Forty-one percent of the candidates are women and their average age is 48.6, Sessa said.

Of the approved slates, women and men are not equally represented on 39, women are underrepresented on 37 slates and men on two, Sessa said, adding that this was was a petty offence of which DIP would notify the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor to launch misdemeanor proceedings.

Seventeen candidates are running in Constituency No. 12, where ethnic minorities elect eight MPs, Sessa said.

He noted that for the time being no country had banned the implementation of the elections on its soil due to the coronavirus pandemic.

DIP will start publishing election results at 10 p.m. on July 5 at the earliest, and they will be published as they arrive from polling committees.

Sessa said DIP was carefully following the epidemiological situation and was also ready for the worst-case scenario. Protective equipment – face masks, disinfectants, and gloves, have been secured, he said.

Considering the current slight worsening of the epidemiological situation, Sessa said that the Public Health Institute would issue instructions as to how to conduct the election campaign and organise rallies.

If medical authorities issue new instructions, they will also be published on DIP’s web site, he said.