Croatian Elections Between Parties’ Leaders and Voters’ Decisions: Is Preferential Voting the Solution?

—In 2020, Croatia marked three decades of holding multi-party democratic elections for its Parliament. During this dramatic period manifested by the declaration of independence, the war for independence, the post-war period, and the entry into NATO and the European Union, Croatia used for its parliamentary elections both majority and PR electoral models, as well as their combination. This makes it unique among all transition countries in Central, East, and Southeast Europe. In 2015, the Croatian Parliament enacted into law new electoral rules according to which parliamentary elections were held last six years. The introduction of the preferential vote for parliamentary elections which has been used in Croatia for the elections to the European Parliament in 2013 seemingly has made possible a greater influence of voters on the election of candidates. In short, in the parliamentary elections, the same as in the European elections, voters can give one preferential vote to one of the candidates proposed on the electoral list of a party, a coalition, or a group of independent candidates. However, the high percentage of votes which must be won by the candidates on lists for the preferential vote to have any effect again brings to the fore political parties and their leaders, rather than individual candidates. The Croatian party system is one of the most stable ones in Europe, so the question arises how much this was affected by the electoral rules and political parties with their public and hidden incentives, respectively.