Early parliamentary elections are under way.
At 7 am, polling stations have open for early elections for members of Croatian Parliament. About 3.74 million voters will go to the polls for the second time in just ten months to elect new Parliament and decide who will form the new government, reports Index.hr on September 11, 2016.
There are about 6,500 regular polling stations, 105 special polling stations for provisionally registered voters, and 152 polling stations for voters serving in the armed forces, prisoners, sailors and those who live in assisted-living facilities.
In total, 151 members of Parliament will be elected. There are around 2,500 candidates. Voters in various constituencies can choose among 177 candidate lists and 29 candidates in the special constituency where members of national minorities choose their representatives.
The elections will be monitored by about 12,000 observers, mostly from HDZ which has nearly 8,000 observers. About 80,000 people will take part in the process as members of election commissions at precinct and higher levels.
In addition to voting for candidate lists, voters can also give one preferential vote to a person on that list. Candidate who receives more than 10 percent of votes given to their list will quality to enter Parliament regardless of their position on the list.
President of the State Election Commission Branko Hrvatin called on voters to come to the polls and vote. “These are the first early parliamentary elections and I think that the level of responsibility of voters for political situation and the state of democracy is even higher than usual”, said Hrvatin.
In addition to Croatia, voting is taking place in 49 other countries as well. The voting abroad takes place over two days, Saturday and Sunday.
In Croatia, polling stations opened at 7 am and will close at 7 pm. At noon and at 5 pm, the State Election Commission will announce provisional turnout reports. As soon as polls close, the media will publish the results of exit poll. First actual results will start coming in starting about 10 pm, and it is expected that by midnight almost all votes will have been counted.
Ana Lovrin, vice-president of the State Election Commission, said on Sunday morning that all polling stations in Croatia had been opened on time and that so far there had been no reports of any irregularities.
Voters will elect 151 MPs (140 in ten parliamentary constituencies in Croatia, 3 in a special constituency for Croatian nationals living abroad, and 8 in a special constituency which includes national minorities).
