Voting for the 11th Croatian parliament began abroad on Monday at 11 p.m. Croatian time with the opening of three of the four polling stations in Australia, in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne.

The election abroad will last two days, while in Croatia it will only last one day, on Wednesday 17 April.

The fourth polling station in Australia, in Perth, opened at midnight on Tuesday, as did the polling station in Beijing, China.

Only 520 voters have registered for this election in Australia. Damir Kontrec, vice-president of the State Electoral Commission, says one reason for this could be that the election is taking place midweek on Tuesday and Wednesday, instead of Saturday and Sunday, when most people are not working.

Polling stations in 22 European countries opened at 7am on Tuesday

The parliamentary election is being held in 41 countries in cities with diplomatic/consular missions. Polling stations opened at 7am on Tuesday in 22 European countries as well as in Egypt and South Africa, where eight and 75 voters registered respectively.

In constituency 11, which covers practically the entire world, Croatian citizens who reside there and have registered to vote are voting. Almost 223,000 did so for this election, around 37,000 more than in the last parliamentary election in July 2020.

Most registered voters abroad are in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (58,000), Belgrade, Serbia (19,300), Subotica, Serbia (17,700), Stuttgart, Germany (15,800), Munich, Germany (13,500), Vienna, Austria and in Orasje (10,300 each), a city in the north-east of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Croatian citizens residing in Croatia can also vote abroad if they have obtained a certificate to do so outside their place of residence.

Election silence in Croatia in force from midnight

After months of unofficial and 16,5 days of official campaigning, a two-day election silence began in Croatia at midnight on Tuesday. It will last until 7 p.m. on Wednesday, until the closing of the approximately 6,500 polling stations that will open in Croatia on that day.

Until then, there is a ban on all election advertising and the publication of estimates of the election results as well as photos, statements and interviews of the candidates.

The law does not provide for fines for violating electoral silence, but the State Electoral Commission calls on all election participants and other legal and natural persons to respect the silence, including “other direct or indirect participants in the election campaign.”

The media also have a duty to respect election silence.