Post by Dinko on Nov 22, 2003 12:13:26 GMT
Croatian election comes down to the wire
22 November 2003
Polls suggest a nail-biting race between the moderate ruling coalition and its nationalist opposition in Croatia's general election Sunday, which could decide who leads the country into the European Union.
The rightist opposition grouped around the Croatian Democratic Unionwill win 70 out of 140 seats in the parliament, according to the poll published Friday in the Vecernji List daily newspaper.
Six center-left parties including four from the ruling coalition, led by the Social-Democratic Party of Prime Minister Ivica Racan, will win 68 seats, the poll of some 4,000 people conducted by Puls agency said.
The next government is likely to be a coalition as no party is expected to win a majority in parliament.
Either way, the winner on Sunday will look forward to being able to claim that prize of EU membership, expected to come in 2007.
"There is no alternative to Croatia's entry into both the European Union and NATO," said HDZ leader Ivo Sanader during a television debate this week with Racan.
The prime minister hit back by highlighting the rapid progress Croatia has made toward EU membership since his government came to power after crushing the HDZ in elections almost four years ago.
"We are a guarantee that Croatia will enter the European Union," he said.
The moderates' 2000 election triumph was a milestone for Croatia after a decade of authoritarian rule under former president Franjo Tudjman, who led the country to independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 but won few friends on the international stage with his hardline brand of nationalism.
While Racan's team has been credited with salvaging democracy, reviving the economy from the ravages of the 1991-95 Serbo-Croat war, and ending Croatia's international isolation, it has also been accused of failing to reduce unemployment and fight corruption.
"The voters reproach the HDZ for what they have done and the center-left coalition for what they have not done while in power," said Ivan Siber, a political analyst.
Analysts say the ruling coalition needs high turnout, a sign that the moderate middle-ground of the electorate is taking part, and the support of the Croatian Peasants' Party if it is to overtake the HDZ.
Following its election debacle in 2000, the HDZ under Sanader has been trying to reinvent itself as a more centralist party in the mainstream of European conservatism.
But the government, as well as leaders of the significant Serb minority, are sceptical, and Sanadar himself has been reluctant to directly denounce his party's mistakes in the 1990s.
"We will not deal with the past since Croatia, facing big problems, has no time for that," Sanader said recently.
Diplomats in Zagreb said that whether the HDZ's new image was genuine or not, there was only one way ahead for the next government if the country is to gain entry to the EU.
Croatia applied for EU membership in February hoping to join the bloc in 2007 along with Bulgaria and Romania.
"The international community's demands concerning Croatia will not change. The new government, whichever it will be, will be judged according to its results," a European envoy said.
A total of 3,972,782 Croatians are registered to elect 140 deputies in the fourth legislative vote since the Balkan country proclaimed independence.
The new parliament will also have eight more seats for minorities, likely to support the moderates, while almost 400,000 Croats living abroad, traditionally HDZ allies, can have up to 12 deputies depending on their turnout.
22 November 2003
Polls suggest a nail-biting race between the moderate ruling coalition and its nationalist opposition in Croatia's general election Sunday, which could decide who leads the country into the European Union.
The rightist opposition grouped around the Croatian Democratic Unionwill win 70 out of 140 seats in the parliament, according to the poll published Friday in the Vecernji List daily newspaper.
Six center-left parties including four from the ruling coalition, led by the Social-Democratic Party of Prime Minister Ivica Racan, will win 68 seats, the poll of some 4,000 people conducted by Puls agency said.
The next government is likely to be a coalition as no party is expected to win a majority in parliament.
Either way, the winner on Sunday will look forward to being able to claim that prize of EU membership, expected to come in 2007.
"There is no alternative to Croatia's entry into both the European Union and NATO," said HDZ leader Ivo Sanader during a television debate this week with Racan.
The prime minister hit back by highlighting the rapid progress Croatia has made toward EU membership since his government came to power after crushing the HDZ in elections almost four years ago.
"We are a guarantee that Croatia will enter the European Union," he said.
The moderates' 2000 election triumph was a milestone for Croatia after a decade of authoritarian rule under former president Franjo Tudjman, who led the country to independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 but won few friends on the international stage with his hardline brand of nationalism.
While Racan's team has been credited with salvaging democracy, reviving the economy from the ravages of the 1991-95 Serbo-Croat war, and ending Croatia's international isolation, it has also been accused of failing to reduce unemployment and fight corruption.
"The voters reproach the HDZ for what they have done and the center-left coalition for what they have not done while in power," said Ivan Siber, a political analyst.
Analysts say the ruling coalition needs high turnout, a sign that the moderate middle-ground of the electorate is taking part, and the support of the Croatian Peasants' Party if it is to overtake the HDZ.
Following its election debacle in 2000, the HDZ under Sanader has been trying to reinvent itself as a more centralist party in the mainstream of European conservatism.
But the government, as well as leaders of the significant Serb minority, are sceptical, and Sanadar himself has been reluctant to directly denounce his party's mistakes in the 1990s.
"We will not deal with the past since Croatia, facing big problems, has no time for that," Sanader said recently.
Diplomats in Zagreb said that whether the HDZ's new image was genuine or not, there was only one way ahead for the next government if the country is to gain entry to the EU.
Croatia applied for EU membership in February hoping to join the bloc in 2007 along with Bulgaria and Romania.
"The international community's demands concerning Croatia will not change. The new government, whichever it will be, will be judged according to its results," a European envoy said.
A total of 3,972,782 Croatians are registered to elect 140 deputies in the fourth legislative vote since the Balkan country proclaimed independence.
The new parliament will also have eight more seats for minorities, likely to support the moderates, while almost 400,000 Croats living abroad, traditionally HDZ allies, can have up to 12 deputies depending on their turnout.