Chamber:
	Zastupnicki Dom
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	29 October 1995
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held for all the seats of the House of Representatives following the premature dissolution of this body on 20 September 1995. General elections had previously been held in August 1992.
Background and outcome of elections:
	The 1995 general elections - the second since independence in 1991 - were called some nine months early by the Government in the wake of important Croatian military victories over Serb forces in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. President of the Republic Franjo Tudjman and his ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) were seeking a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives - a margin which would allow the party to amend the Constitution unilaterally. The opposition consisted mainly of the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SDP), the centre-left Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) and the Joint list bloc - a coalition of centrist and regional groups led by the Croatian Peasant Party. A month before the elections, HDZ prospects were heightened by controversial amendments to the Electoral Law which, on the one hand, reduced Serb minority representation in the House from 13 to three and, on the other hand, assigned 12 seats to representatives of Croatians abroad. The three-week campaign was dominated by the personality of President Tudjman, who presented himself as a military hero. The opposition, for its part, criticised the personality cult surrounding the President which, it claimed, overshadowed other significant domestic issues such as the country's ailing economy and its sizeable poor class. Altogether 1,433 candidates and a multitude of lists vied for the 127 seats at stake. Polling day procedures were monitored by foreign observer teams from Europe and the USA, who deemed them generally free and fair despite some detected irregularities; the latter necessitated repeat elections on 5 November in five constituencies. According to final results as announced by the State Electoral Commission on 14 November, the right-wing, nationalist HDZ emerged victorious with an overall total of 75 seats. In the fight for second place, the moderate Joint list topped the HSLS, which thus sank to third ahead of the ex-communist SDP. The new Cabinet is headed by Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa.

STATISTICS

Round no 1 (29 October 1995): Elections results
Number of registered electors	3,634,233
Voters	2,500,040 (68.8%)
Blank or invalid ballot papers	82,666
Valid votes	2,417,374

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total	State lists	Majority	Diaspora
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)	75	42	21	12
Joint list	20	16	4	0
Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS)	11	10	1	0
Social Democratic Party (SDP)	9	8	1	0
Croatian Party of Rights (HSP)	4	4	0	0
Others	8	0	8	0

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	117
Women:	10

Distribution of seats according to age:
21-30 years	2
31-40 years	33
41-50 years	32
51-60 years	35
61-70 years	21
over 70 years	4
Distribution of seats according to profession:
Legal and liberal professions	50
Engineers	19
Economists	16
Teachers	9
Medical professions	9
Agriculture	3
Trade and Industry	2
Others	19