4 403 871 Croatian citizens with the right to vote chose new Croatian president on January 2nd 2005. Apart from few exceptions, the elections were conducted according to the national election law and international standards. Appropriate organization by the State Election Commission and Polling Station Commissions also contributed to the overall calm atmosphere. (03-JAN-05)
This is the general assessment of Citizens Organized to Monitor the Elections (GONG), domestic non-partisan organization entrusted with the observation of the presidential elections. Their preliminary assessment consists on the field reports from over 1000 GONG observers deployed all over Croatia on the election day. Although elections were conducted fairly and without major incidents some of the polling station commissions didn’t fully meet election procedures and were not composed according to legal framework.
Violation of the election law
In addition, violations of electoral silence were also noticed – says the GONG in their preliminary report. Media failed to respect the electoral silence. However, several independent candidates to the post, most recently challenged the results of the elections, claiming that media failed to respect the electoral silence. Namely, leading electronic media in Croatia, including Croatian National Television, decided to make the result public even before the polling stations were closed.
-By doing so, they have seriously violated the election law and prematurely suggested the outcome of the elections. GONG underlined in their joint statement.
50,6 percent of the population voted
Only 50,65 % of the overall number of registered voters decided to vote yesterday. Former president Stjepan Mesic with 49,03% of votes and his opponent Jadranka Kosor with 20,00% of votes will meet in the second round of the election, foreseen for January 14th 2005.
