Background
On February 22, the incumbent president Tudman was re-nominated by his party HDZ to seek a re-election bid. In April, two months earlier, local elections and 1997 Croatian Chamber of Counties election, elections for the upper chamber of the parliament were held. Local elections showed weakening of HDZ position in urban centers. The aftermath of Zagreb crisis and the protests against silencing Radio 101 (Croatia), Radio 101, an independent and critical media outlet, additionally led to a drop of government approval. It was also widely rumoured that 75-year-old president Tudman is suffering from cancer and his health was a major topic of speculation. Political parties in opposition to the ruling HDZ pondered agreeing on a single candidate to challenge Tudman. Scholar Ivan Supek was mentioned, but nothing came out of it. SDP and HNS toyed with the idea to jointly support Croatian Social Liberal Party, HSLS candidate, poet and philosopher, MP Vlado Gotovac, but SDP ended up supporting Tomac's bid. The rift in the united opposition was evident during the local elections earlier in the year, when Croatian Peasant Party, HSS and HSLS distanced themselves from SDP. According to journalist Vlado Vurusic, SDP's Tomac chose to run knowing he stood little chance in order to legitimize the elections and build further visibility for the opposition. Analysts believed that opposition's goal was to at least secure a run-off, preventing an absolute majority in the first round. Before the start of the official campaign, president Tudman's 75th birthday on May 14 was lavishly celebrated in Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, culminating with a three-hour play showing his presidency as a peak of Croatian national history. Croatian National Bank minted a Commemorative coins of Croatia, commemorative coin, while Croatian Post issued a Postage stamp, stamp celebrating his birthday. State television broadcast an extensive multi-part documentary about Tudjman's life as well. In a state-funded campaign, charity concert "''All Croatian Victories for Vukovar''" was promoted throughout the country with billboards and posters depicting the president. There were further concerns regarding access to polls. According to the OSCE, "as many as 300,000 lifelong (primarily Serbs of Croatia, ethnic Serb) residents who fled the country" during the War in Croatia, 1991-5 war were disenfranchised, facing severe political, legal and administrative hurdles preventing them from voting. On the other hand, approximately 330,000 Bosnian Croats were given the vote due to their Croatian citizenship. Citizens living in the eastern Slavonia, formerly Serb rebel-held areas and under UN administration at the time, were to vote for the first time in national elections. They had already voted in local elections in April.Candidates
Failed candidacies
*Dobroslav Paraga, chairman of Croatian Party of Rights 1861, HSP-1861, gathered just 8,462 signatures supporting his bid, thus failing to reach 10,000 hurdle.Campaign
Tudman officially launched his campaign on May 28, presenting his manifesto at a reception in Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb. On May 30, Statehood Day (Croatia), Statehood Day, a military parade was organized along Jarun, Jarun lake in Zagreb, prominently featuring Tudman as the commander-in-chief. At an estimated cost of 16 million Deutsche Mark, DEM, parade's exact purpose was questioned by media. HDZ campaign committee published an election manifesto in all daily newspapers including a list of 800 public personas and celebrities officially supporting Tudman's re-election bid. However, several of the listed were under-age, while a number of artists and celebrities listed afterwards issued a public rebuttal, stating that they were never consulted on the matter. The list included public broadcaster director as well. On June 8, president Tudjman visited Vukovar and eastern Slavonia for the second time. The area was previously occupied by Republic of Serbian Krajina, rebel ethnic Serb authorities and was under the transitional authority of United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, United Nations' administration at the time. Peaceful local elections took place throughout the region in April and gradual reintegration in Croatia was going according to plan and scheduled to be completed in 1998. Now, however, Tudjman visited Vukovar in a 21-car railway composition dubbed "The Peace Train," bringing many politicians, dignitaries and celebrities with him and stopping for Whistle stop train tour, whistle-stop rallies on his way from Zagreb. In a Zagreb whistle-stop rally, he viciously attacked the opposition in general as "a handful of sold-out Judas Iscariot, Judas' sons." Holding a conciliatorPula incident
On June 5, opposition candidate, Vlado Gotovac from HSLS, was physically attacked during his rally in Pula by Croatian Army captain Tomislav Brzović of the elite 1st Croatian Guards Corps, 1st Guards Corps, who wore dress uniform. The attacker hit him in the head with his belt, shouting "I am an Ustashe, ustasha, long live Ante Pavelić!", later threatening to kill everyone present. Gotovac suffered a concussion and was hospitalised for four days. Having to suspend his activities for further 10 days, the opposition jointly - albeit unsuccessfully - petitioned the electoral commission to suspend the campaign altogether until Gotovac recovers. Captain Brzovic was suspended for several months from active duty and received a conditional sentence, but was not ultimately discharged from army and resumed his commissioned duties. President Tudman neither reached out to Gotovac nor condemned the attack, even going as far as calling opposition candidates "headless" and "confused" in Vukovar.Opinion polls
Results
Tomac and Gotovac fared better in cities, with Gotovac coming second in Split, Croatia, Split (32%-21%) and narrowly third in Rijeka. Out of 377,705 citizens living abroad eligible to vote, 88,728 (23.5%) eventually did so, predominantly in Bosnia and Herzegovina (48 thousand out of 140,742 eligible to vote) and Germany (23 thousand). In total, 81,107 (91.4%) voted for Tudman, 2,676 for Tomac, and 4,463 for Gotovac. Voter turnout was fairly low in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia (1995–1998), Eastern Slavonia, then under UN administration and with an ethnic Serb majority. UNTAES complained that Croatian authorities did not update voting records in time, which left some 10% of those who did turn out to cast a ballot without a vote. Voter turnout was also low in some opposition-friendly regions; for instance, in Krapina-Zagorje County, Krapina-Zagorje county it stood around 40%. Turnout was highest in Pozega-Slavonia County (51,38%), while Zadar county reported lowest figures - just 34,5%.Maps
Aftermath
U.S. senator, U.S. Senator Paul Simon (politician), Paul Simon, special Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE coordinator for monitoring the elections, reported that "Croatia has experienced a free but not fair election. While candidates were able to speak freely, the process leading up to the election was fundamentally flawed. It did not meet the minimum standards for democracies. By contrast the election itself was - with some exceptions - conducted efficiently." HDZ fell short of its proclaimed 70% vote target, but still celebrated with fireworks and an open-air party in Zagreb. Government-friendly''Vjesnik'' commented that the electorate had rejected political experiments, opting for continuity. Tuđman took the oath of office for a second term on 5 August 1997 at St. Mark's Square, Zagreb, Saint Mark's Square. He chose the inauguration date to coincide with the anniversary of the military Operation Storm, operation "Storm" that ended the war in Croatia two years earlier. Croatian jurist and constitutional expert, Branko Smerdel, in 2000 opined that the 1997 elections saw a transition from Tudman's "imperial war-time presidency" to "an elective monarchy", as Tudman afterwards hoarded power in his various councils, advisory bodies and committees. However, he served only a little more than two years of his new 5-year term, as he died on 10 December 1999, triggering 2000 Croatian presidential election, early elections being called for January 2000. Vlatko Pavletić assumed the post of Acting President as the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament. SDP's result as runners-up, prevailing over HSLS, was important in establishing them as a leading opposition party and a senior partner in building the coalition (August 1998) that eventually won the 2000 Croatian parliamentary election, 2000 parliamentary elections and formed the first post-HDZ government. SDP showed further growth continuity in the polls and stabilized its vote share. In 1998, SDP chairman Ivica Račan was far ahead of president Tudman in popularity polls. In 1998, HDZ could not form a majority in two counties (Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Dubrovnik-Neretva) and was forced to call the elections, which were won by the united opposition. Gotovac was disappointed with his result and the "lack of a political centre in Croatia," warning against "bi-polarization" of Croatian politics. His 17% vote share as a candidate of several largest opposition parties in Sabor showed their loss of credibility as an alternative. Much lower turnout than at both April Croatian local elections, 1997, local elections (70%) and previous 1992 Croatian presidential election, presidential elections in 1992 was seen by some as a sign of voter apathy and their perception of the unfairness of the electoral process, but also as a loss of credibility in HSS, HSLS and HNS, whose councilors frequently crossed the floor after the elections, thus enabling HDZ to form the majority in several cities and counties despite their failure to achieve so at the ballot. Gotovac's failure to beat Tomac was a trigger for an intra-party clash in HSLS, exposing the rift between more nationalist-friendly Budisa (who flirted with HDZ during local elections) and Zagreb party organization on one side and Gotovac on the other. Budisa was elected party chairman, while Gotovac left the party, forming a splinter Liberal Party (Croatia), Liberal Party in January 1998. According to political scientist Trevor Waters, after the elections "support for Tudjman and the HDZ fell sharply amid widespread allegations of corruption, cronyism and nepotism, particularly with regard to the privatisation of state-owned assets." Fractional in-fighting amongst HDZ became apparent as the united opposition started rising in the opinion polls.References
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