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Our role  in the electoral process for the two rounds of the local elections was that of independent electoral observers, people in charge of monitoring the whole voting process and present at the voting stations to ensure that voters can freely express their political preferences in a secret, protected, and democratic manner. RNV was among the civil society organizations that got accredited as independent observers for this electoral round from the State Election Commission (DIP, Državno izborno povjerenstvo).

For what concerns Zagreb, the city in which we were electoral observers, there were seven candidates for the seat of mayor, and 12 lists of candidates were running for the seats in the city assembly. In Zagreb, the seven candidates were representative of several different political colors: Možemo! (We Can!) and the Social Democratic Party were both backing Tomislav Tomašević, the incumbent mayor of Zagreb, who had been in charge from 2021. Two candidates, Marija Selak Raspudić and Pavle Kalinić, were running with two independent lists. Mislav Herman was the candidate chosen by the coalition of the Croatian Democratic Union. Lastly, Davor Bernardić, Tomislav Jonjić, and Ivica Lovrić were the representatives chosen by the Zagreb United coalition, Only Croatia! coalition, and Blue City coalition respectively. 

Due to the high fragmentation of political offers available for voters, no candidate got the majority in the first electoral round. Indeed, the Law on the Elections of Municipal Mayors, Mayors, Counties, and Mayors of the City of Zagreb (Zakon o izborima općinskih načelnika, gradonačelnika, župana i gradonačelnika grada Zagreba), adopted in 2007, provides for all these representatives to be elected «using a majority electoral system in which the entire area of the municipality or city, county and the City of Zagreb constitutes one electoral unit» (Article 33). Additionally, the following Article, prescribes for mayors, county prefects, and the mayor of the City of Zagreb, county prefects, and the mayor of Zagreb to be elected by a majority of votes.

Clearly, the combination of these legislations and of the situation that was at place in Zagreb, a second round of elections was needed to finally elect the Mayor of Zagreb. In fact, at the end of the first round of voting, out of the seven candidates, none of them had secured the majority. The statistics collected by the Electoral Commission of the City of Zagreb show that in the first round, 279.804 people participated in the first electoral round. The candidate that got the highest percentage of votes was Mr Tomašević, who - however - stopped his run in the first round at 47.59% (135,545 votes). 

The candidates with the highest number of votes, Tomašević and Selak Raspudić (44,645 votes, 15,67%) were then facing each other in the second round, which was held on June 1. At the runoff for mayor, Tomašević eventually won with 130,996 votes, equating to 57,56% of all votes. His opponent, Selak Raspudić, collected 96,590 votes (42,44%).

Concerning the Assembly election for the City of Zagreb, there were 47 seats at stake. For a coalition or a party to get to the majority, there was the need to win at least 24 seats. In this case as well, Tomašević’s coalition won, although with a less sharp result compared to what he achieved as a mayor. Indeed, his coalition got 43,66% of votes, totaling 25 seats (just one more than the bare minimum to get the majority), and losing three seats compared to the 2021 electoral round.

The other lists managed to gather considerably less support from the voters. The HDZ coalition received 15.09% of votes, resulting in 8 seats, three less than 2021. Two coalitions, Zagreb United and the Independent list of Jonjić, managed to get some degree of representation at the local level for the first time in their history, respectively with 4 and 3 seats. Lastly, the independent list led by Raspudić, which did not participate in the previous electoral round, achieved the significant result of controlling 7 seats.

From a personal perspective, it was again a very unique experience. Compared to the Presidential elections, when there were only two candidates running for the seat, it was much more thrilling to see the whole process of counting and validating the votes, and also to hear the opinions of the committee who was in charge of leading the voting session. I highly value this opportunity, because it allowed me to see politics happening from the inside and to deepen my knowledge of the electoral mechanism in a country which is rarely included as an example in textbooks.