AP News, November 26th, 2007
Croatia's ruling conservatives and center-left opposition competed for allies Monday to form a government after both sides fell short of a majority in close-fought parliamentary elections.
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's Croatian Democratic Union had a slight edge in the race to form a coalition. With nearly all the votes counted from Sunday's election, the party won 61 seats in parliament, compared with 56 for the Social Democrats, the Electoral Commission said. The parties needed 77 seats to govern on their own.
Any new government is expected to keep Croatia on its pro-Western course. Challenges include speeding up reforms necessary for the ex-Yugoslav republic to join the European Union by 2010 and be invited to join NATO next year. The government must tackle corruption, overhaul the economy to reduce 14 percent unemployment and raise the average monthly wage of $980.
President Stipe Mesic said he would give a mandate to the party that provides "convincing evidence" that it has a majority in parliament.
Whoever wins "would have a strong opposition, which is good for democracy," Mesic said.
Sanader declared victory around midnight. His spokesman, Ratko Macek, said the ruling party has "greater coalition capital. We should get a mandate."
European leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, have congratulated Sanader, the party said.
The Social Democrats were not giving up. Party leader Zoran Milanovic said they had "started gathering support for forming a new government."
Sanader's party was likely to add five to six seats representing Croats living abroad.
But the Social Democrats could get up 66 deputies with its two certain leftist allies, although such an alliance would require concessions.
The kingmakers are the eight deputies of the third-strongest coalition, comprising the Liberals and the Peasants Party, and 13 others from various small parties.
Sanader's party — then run by nationalists — ruled for a decade until the Social Democrats won power in 2000, turning Croatia on its pro-Western path. In 2003, the Democratic Union returned to government, with Sanader transforming the party to continue Croatia's rapprochement with the West.
