ZAGREB, October 23, 2019 – The first round of presidential elections in Croatia will almost certainly be held on December 22, three days before Christmas, which means that the second round would be held on January 5, the Večernji List daily learned from sources at the ruling HDZ party, who said that other dates were possible only in the event of extraordinary situations.
The formal decision on elections is made by the government, which must call elections 60 days at the earliest and 30 days at the latest before the expiry of the term of incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the Večernji List issue of Wednesday says.
These legal and constitutional provisions make it possible for the government to call elections on five possible dates between December 19 and January 19. Since elections are always held on a Sunday, possible election dates are December 22 and 29 and January 5,12 and 19.
The HDZ has opted for the earliest possible date, but the daily’s sources claim that they did not give any special consideration to which of the possible dates would be more favourable for their candidate.
Previous presidential elections were held at the end of December and considering constitutional deadlines, there was no reason to choose a date in January and call elections at the last moment, a senior HDZ member, involved in Grabar-Kitarović’s campaign, said.
Considerations regarding the most favourable date for elections could be linked with the fact that their first round falls ahead of Christmas, when most voters are in Croatia, while the second round falls in January, at the time of school holidays, when many are away for skiing.
Political analyst Žarko Puhovski believes that that fact is not without influence on the possible election outcome and is confident that the absence of a part of the electorate during winter school holidays in the 2015 presidential election had a negative impact on the result of former president Ivo Josipović and that he might have won the election if its timing had been different.
More news about presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.
