Tomislav Karamarko is the only candidate.
Around 220,000 HDZ members will on Sunday, 17 April, have the option to choose Tomislav Karamarko as HDZ president for another term at 800 polling stations across Croatia. Although Karamarko is the only candidate for the head of HDZ, elections must be held according to the procedure, so the electoral process will include at least 4,000 people since at each polling station there will be five members of the voting committee. The elections will be held on Sunday from 8 am to 7 pm, and the results, including the data about turnout and the number of valid and spoiled ballots, are expected to be announced at 9 pm, confirmed Damir Sesvečan, Chairman of the HDZ Central Election Commission, reports Večernji List on April 12, 2016.
On Friday, the last day of the electoral campaign, Tomislav Karmarko will be able to say that he has visited 95 percent of local HDZ organisations, said Damir Jelić, Karamarko’s campaign manager. Although he is the only candidate, Karamarko has been serious in his approach to the campaign and has spent days visiting various party branches. Now the only question is how many HDZ members will go to the polls, and what level of support will Karamarko receive.
Jelić said that the campaign is investing maximum efforts to motivate members to go to the polls on Sunday, although he is aware that some members would have to travel as much as 25 kilometres to reach the polling stations. Since the outcome of the election is clear and Karamarko will again be the party president, members are not really motivated to go to the polls.
Karamarko’s candidacy collected 30,000 signatures of support, and Jelić had previously said that it would be a success if so many people came out to vote. Jelić proposed that the results of the election should be announced at the HDZ headquarters, because it was clear that Karamarko would again become president since there was no opponent, and in that way costs of renting another venue would be avoided.
Simultaneously with the elections for HDZ president, heads of local party branches are being elected as well, which will be followed by election conventions for municipal, city and county organizations. These conventions will take place in early May while on 28 May the party congress will be held where the highest party bodies will be elected. There will be 2,222 party delegates elected by local organisations who will be able to vote at the congress, while some of the delegates, such as members of the government and Parliament, will directly become delegates.
When he started his electoral campaign, Karamarko sent a message to HDZ that in the next term he wanted a younger generation of people, so it can be expected that the party presidency will include some of the younger HDZ cadres.
