Exit Polls: SDP and HDZ Completely Equal with 56 Representatives Each

What has been claimed for days – that the parliamentary elections in Croatia in 2015 will be the most uncertain so far, is confirmed by the first exit polls.

It’s done!  Exactly at 7 PM, the polling stations in Croatia closed, where voters decided on the new composition of the Croatian Parliament. What will the new Parliament look like, and who do Croatian citizens want at the helm of the 13th (un)fortunate Croatian Government?

According to the first exit polls, both SDP and HDZ have 56 representatives in the new Parliament, MOST has 18, IDS-PGS has three as does the Living Wall. The party of Milan Bandić receives two mandates, as does HDSSB, the diaspora three, and minorities eight representatives.

The survey was conducted on a sample of 29,313 respondents at 400 polling stations, 40 per electoral unit. In Croatia and 48 other countries, 151 representatives were elected, 140 in ten electoral units in Croatia, three from the ‘diaspora’, and eight representatives of national minorities.

According to the data from the State Electoral Commission, by 4:30 PM, 46.57 percent of voters, or 1,508,825 voters, had turned out at the polling stations for the Sunday elections for the Croatian Parliament. Measured in percentages, of the ten electoral units in Croatia, the best turnout was in the first – 51.62 percent, followed by the seventh electoral unit with 49.24 percent and the second electoral unit with 48.71 percent of voters. On the other hand, the lowest voter turnout by 4:30 PM was in the fifth electoral unit – 41.91 percent, as reported on the DIP website.

According to initial estimates, MOST led by Božo Petrov is the winner of the parliamentary elections.

– In the past, polls have proven to be unreliable. When the real results come in, we will win. When DIP announces the results, we will have a comfortable margin and we will be the winners of these elections, said Miro Kovač, the international secretary of HDZ.

– Without us, no one will decide anything anymore. It’s time for HDZ and SDP to realize that they are not the parties that will alternate in power for a hundred years, said Ivan Lovrinović from the MOST party, and his party colleague, the mayor of Omiš, Ivan Kovačić added:

– We sincerely want to be the reforms; if someone agrees to the reforms that MOST demands, only then can we talk. There is no coalition.

– In relation to the number of mandates of the first two parties, I am not surprised; all polls indicated that the elections would be tight. As for the distribution of other mandates, there was a visible trend of growth for MOST at the expense of other third options. It’s not a big surprise; many expected that HDZ would have slightly more mandates, and MOST slightly less, but that is not the case, said Arsen Bauk, a member of the SDP Presidency.

More soon…