These days the media is zooming in on the parliamentary elections with an in-depth analysis. In Croatia, as well as in other countries, you have to be eligible or have the right to cast a vote and thus choose candidates. The common procedure is to vote by ballot, which is a piece of paper listing the candidates running for the office. The voters cast their ballots into ballot boxes at polling stations. At the close of the election all boxes are taken to a single location for counting.
140 members of the Parliament of Croatia are elected to a four-year term in ten multi-seat constituencies. The constituencies are defined on the basis of the existing administrative borders, with necessary amendments to achieve a uniform number of eligible voters in each constituency to within 5% variation. Another constituency is defined for citizens of Croatia living abroad. However, its number of representatives was not fixed for the last parliamentary election. It was instead calculated based on numbers of votes cast in the ten constituencies in Croatia and the votes cast in the 11th constituency, set up for those living outside Croatia. In the 2007 parliamentary election the constituency elected five MPs. Recent constitutional changes have modified the scheme and assigned permanently three MPs to the 11th constituency.
Additional eight members of the parliament are elected by representatives belonging to 22 recognized minorities in Croatia: the Serb minority elects three MPs, Hungarians and Italians elect one MP each, Czech and Slovak minorities elect one MP each, while all other minorities elect two more MPs to the parliament. Standard D’Hondt formula is applied to the vote, with a 5% election threshold. The d’Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D’Hondt who described it in 1878. D’Hondt slightly favors large parties and coalitions over scattered small parties.
