The State Electoral Commission (DIP) received fewer candidate lists for the 17 April parliamentary election than four years ago, preliminary data show.

From 16 March through 29 March, 166 lists were submitted, 26 fewer than in 2020, when nearly 2,700 candidates competed for 151 parliamentary seats.

The highest number of lists, 18 each, was submitted in Constituencies 1 and 9, while the lowest, number only eight, was submitted in Constituency 11, where Croatian citizens residing outside Croatia vote.

DIP will announce in the afternoon which lists are valid and officially eligible for the electoral race.

In Constituency 12, where eight MPs are elected by national minorities, there are 17 candidates, the most, five, for the Serb minority, which elects three MPs, and the least, just one, for the Hungarian minority, which elects one MP.

It is already clear that for the next four years, Robert Jankovics, nominated by the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Croatia, will represent that minority in the next parliament.

The exact number of lists received and whether they are all valid will be known on Saturday afternoon when DIP is scheduled to hold a press conference.

After DIP publishes the valid lists and candidacies on its website, the official electoral campaign will begin.

Official candidates will be able to present themselves to voters until midnight on 15 April, after which Croatia will observe a two-day electoral silence ahead of the election on Wednesday, 17 April.

On election day, voters will decide which 151 representatives will enter the new, 11th Sabor. One hundred and forty will be elected in the 10 constituencies in Croatia, three in the diaspora, and eight in Constituency 12.