Croatian President Calls Parliamentary Elections for November 23

Zagreb, October 20 – Under the Law on the Election of Members of the Croatian Parliament, President of the Republic of Croatia, Stjepan Mesic, called for parliamentary elections on November 23, 2003.

The elections will be held in Croatia on Sunday, November 23. Croatian citizens who reside in the United States will be able to vote at the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Washington, D.C., and at general consular offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Special constituencies are designed for Croatian citizens living abroad.

At the Parliamentary elections, 140 representatives are elected from ten constituencies and each constituency elects 14 representatives. Only the lists with at least five percent of the vote are entitled to participate in the division of seats from a given constituency.

Under the Croatian Constitution, the Croatian Sabor (parliament) may not have fewer than 100 and not more than 160 representatives elected on the basis of the general and equal suffrage by secret ballot for a four-year term.

For more information, please visit the State Election Commission web site at http://www.izbori.hr/, or look for The Law on Election of Members of Croatian Parliament, the Official Gazette No. 69/03 at http://www.nn.hr/sluzbeni-list/sluzbeni/index.asp.  One may also contact the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Washington at (202) 588 8933, or general consular offices in New York (212) 599 3066, Chicago (312) 482 9902 and Los Angeles (310) 477 1009.