Croatia goes to the polls in snap parliamentary elections on Sunday – just 10 months after the last vote produced a parliament unable to forge a sustainable governing coalition – with little hope that the outcome will be any different this time. Pollsters predict that neither of the two main parties which have governed Croatia since it emerged from the former Yugoslavia 25 years ago – the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) – will score a decisive win. “It is certain that the election result will be tight and it is totally certain that neither of the big blocs will have enough to form a government alone,” political analyst Davor Gjenero told dpa.
In terms of parliamentary seats expected to be won, a survey published on September 3 gave the bloc led by SDP a 61-56 lead over the HDZ. In November, HDZ won 59-56. Ruling without a coalition partner would require 76 seats in the 151-seat body.
That means it will apparently again fall to Most – a loose alliance of regional parties that won 17 seats in the last vote and is forecast to win 13 this time – to pick a coalition partner and decide which grouping will nominate the prime minister.
Full Article: PREVIEW Ten months on, Croatia heads for snap polls, but same outcome beckons By Boris Babic, dpa | EUROPE ONLINE.