Elections in Croatia

Croatian parties have put a number of veterans from independence war of the 1990s on their candidates' lists for the parliamentary elections due in November.

The Patriotic Coalition, led by strongest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, is putting at least one war veteran on all its lists.

Political experts told BIRN that in the upcoming elections in November, a major role would be played by parties outside the centre-left coalition led by the governing Social Democratic Party, SDP, and the centre-right coalition led by the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ.

Croatia is entering one of the shortest election campaigns in its history after President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic on Monday set polling day for November 8.

Now the date of the vote has been confirmed, the parties and independent candidates have 14 days to submit their applications to the State Electoral Commission, which will accept and publish all valid lists within 48 hours.

After months of work, the first glimpses of the program of the strongest opposition party, the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, have been revealed.

The daily Vecernji list on Wednesday published an overview of the HDZ's program for Croatian parliamentary elections in November, which will be presented in full on Thursday.

With parliamentary elections expected in November, the economy, the refugee crisis and voter trust in the main leadership candidates are likely to dominate the debate, sayspolitical analyst.

Aleksandar Vulin has said he is "certain" Croatia will "give up on the idea to hermetically seal its border.."

Such an idea has been voiced by Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic on Friday accused his Serbian counterpart of holding "secret talks with Budapest and with Karamarko in Zagreb."

Tomislav Karamarko is the leader of the opposition Croatian HDZ party.

Croatia's governing centre-left coalition has signed up some new parties as allies for the upcoming parliamentary elections, which will most likely be held between late October and late November.

The main governing party, the centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP, signed a coalition agreement on Tuesday in Varazdin, in the north of Croatia.

Leader of Croatia's HDZ party says his country's allies gave up on participating in the Operation Storm parade on August 4 "due to pressure from Serbia."

Croatia's centre-left governing coalition, known as the "Kukuriku coalition", is making moves to broaden its ranks ahead of the coming elections.

The coalition, led by the Social Democratic Party, SDP, under Zoran Milanovic, has battled poor ratings in the polls in relation to the right-wing coalition led by the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, under Tomislav Karamarko.