The Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (, HDZ BiH) is a Christian democratic Croatian nationalist political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, representing the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is an associate member of the European People's Party. Its headquarters is in Mostar.
History
The party was founded on 18 August 1990, with the first party convention held in Sarajevo. It has participated in all multiparty elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1991. It regularly won the support of the Croat electorate up to 2000 and took part in forming the government. It returned to power in 2002, where it remained until 2010. Since 2014, the party has once again been in power.
In the October 2002 general election, the party was part of the "Croatian Coalition" (Hrvatska koalicija) which won 9.5% of the popular vote and five out of 42 seats in the national House of Representatives and 16 of the 98 seats in the Federal House of Representatives.
In 2006, the party joined the Croatian National Assembly, an alliance of Bosnian Croat political parties, along with the Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croat People's Union. Shortly after, a group HDZ BiH members loyal to Božo Ljubić left the party and founded the Croatian Democratic Union 1990 on 26 April 2006.
Throughout its history, the HDZ BiH has had nine presidents, the current one being Dragan Čović since 5 June 2005. Four of the six Croat members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina have come from the party, the most recent one also being Čović, serving in office from 2014 until 2018.
List of presidents
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|--
! #
! width=180|Name<br /><small>(Born–Died)</small>
! Portrait
! colspan=2|Term of Office
|--
!align=center style="background: ; color:white;"| 1
| Davorin Perinović<br /><small>(b. 1949)</small> || 80px || 18 August 1990 || 7 September 1990
|--
!align=center style="background: ; color:white;"| 2
| Stjepan Kljuić<br /><small>(b. 1939)</small> || 80px || 7 September 1990 || 2 February 1992
|--
!align=center style="background: ; color:white;"| 3
| Milenko Brkić<br /><small>(1944–2017)</small> || 80px || 2 February 1992 || 14 November 1992
|--
!align=center style="background: ; color:white;"| 4
| Mate Boban<br /><small>(1940–1997)</small> || 80px || 14 November 1992 || 10 July 1994
|--
!align=center style="background: ; color:white;"| 5
| Dario Kordić<br /><small>(b. 1960)</small> || 80px || 10 July 1994 || 2 December 1995
|--
!align=center style="background: ; color:white;"| 6
| Božo Rajić<br /><small>(b. 1943)</small> || 80px || 2 December 1995 || 17 May 1998
|--
!align=center style="background: ; color:white;"| 7
| Ante Jelavić<br /><small>(b. 1963)</small> || 80px || 17 May 1998 || 4 May 2002
|--
!align=center style="background: ; color:white;"| 8
| Bariša Čolak<br /><small>(b. 1956)</small> || 80px || 4 May 2002 || 5 June 2005
|--
!align=center style="background: ; color:white;"| 9
| Dragan Čović<br /><small>(b. 1956)</small> || 80px || 5 June 2005 || present
|}
Elections
Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
|+ Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
! Year
! Leader
! #
! Popular vote
! %
! Seats won
! Government
|-
! 1990
| align=center| Stjepan Kljuić
| 3rd
| align=center| 362,855
| 16.07
|
|
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina
! Year
! Leader
! #
! Popular vote
! %
! HoR
! Seat change
! HoP
! Seat change
! Government
|-
! 1996
| Božo Rajić
| 3rd
| align=center| 338,440
| 14.10
|
| New
|
| New
|
|-
! 1998
| rowspan=2| Ante Jelavić
| 2nd
| align=center| 200,092
| 11.59
|
| 2
|
| 0
|
|-
! 2000
| 4th
| align=center| 169,821
| 11.40
|
| 1
|
| 5
|
|-
! 2002
| Bariša Čolak
| 6th
| align=center| 116,452
| 9.48
|
| 0
|
| 4
|
|-
! 2006
| rowspan=5| Dragan Čović
| 6th
| align=center| 69,333
| 4.91
|
| 2
|
| 1
|
|-
! 2010
| 6th
| align=center| 114,476
| 6.97
|
| 0
|
| 1
|
|-
! 2014
| 6th
| align=center| 123,023
| 7.54
|
| 1
|
| 1
|
|-
! 2018
| 5th
| align=center| 149,872
| 9.05
|
| 1
|
| 1
|
|-
! 2022
| 3rd
| align=center| 139,018
| 8.75
|
| 1
|
| 1
|
|}
<timeline>
ImageSize = width:900 height:70
PlotArea = width:800 height:50 left:20 bottom:20
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1996 till:01/01/2026
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/1996
Legend = columns:3 left:40 top:75 columnwidth:90
- there is no automatic collision detection,
- so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap
Colors=
id:Coalition value:green legend:Coalition
id:Opposition value:red legend:Opposition
Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar
Define $dy = -1 # adjust height
PlotData=
bar:Govern. color:blue width:25 mark:(line,black) align:center fontsize:10
from:01/01/1996 till:22/02/2001 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Coalition
from:22/02/2001 till:23/12/2002 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Opposition
from:23/12/2002 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:Coalition
</timeline>
Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
! Year
! Leader
! #
! Popular vote
! %
! HoR
! Seat change
! HoP
! Seat change
! Government
|-
! 1996
| Božo Rajić
| 2nd
| align=center| 337,794
| 25.29
|
| New
|
| New
|
|-
! 1998
| rowspan=2| Ante Jelavić
| 2nd
| align=center| 184,569
| 19.89
|
| 8
|
| 5
|
|-
! 2000
| 3rd
| align=center| 151,812
| 17.49
|
| 3
|
| 14
|
|-
|-
! 2002
| Bariša Čolak
| 4th
| align=center| 113,097
| 15.76
|
| 9
|
| 2
|
|-
! 2006
| rowspan=5| Dragan Čović
| 4th
| align=center| 64,906
| 7.56
|
| 8
|
| 6
|
|-
! 2010
| 4th
| align=center| 108,943
| 10.64
|
| 4
|
| 3
|
|-
! 2014
| 4th
| align=center| 118,375
| 11.93
|
|
|
| 3
|
|-
! 2018
| 3rd
| align=center| 143,704
| 14.35
|
| 4
|
|
|
|-
! 2022
| 3rd
| align=center| 130,566
| 13.38
|
| 1
|
| 4
|
|-
|}
<timeline>
ImageSize = width:900 height:70
PlotArea = width:800 height:50 left:20 bottom:20
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1996 till:31/12/2025
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/1996
Legend = columns:3 left:40 top:75 columnwidth:90
- there is no automatic collision detection,
- so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap
Colors=
id:Coalition value:green legend:Coalition
id:Opposition value:red legend:Opposition
Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar
Define $dy = -1 # adjust height
PlotData=
bar:Govern. color:blue width:25 mark:(line,black) align:center fontsize:10
from:01/01/1996 till:12/03/2001 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Coalition
from:12/03/2001 till:14/02/2003 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Opposition
from:14/02/2003 till:17/03/2011 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Coalition
from:17/03/2011 till:31/03/2015 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Opposition
from:31/03/2015 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:Coalition
</timeline>
Presidency elections
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
! Election year
! #
! Candidate
! Votes
! %
! Representing
! Elected?
|-
!1996
|1st
|Krešimir Zubak
|330,477
|88.70%
|Croats
|
|-
!1998
|1st
|Ante Jelavić
|189,438
|52.91%
|Croats
|
|-
!2002
|1st
|Dragan Čović
|114,606
|61.52%
|Croats
|
|-
!2006
|2nd
|Ivo Miro Jović
|76,681
|26.14%
|Croats
|
|-
!2010
|2nd
|Borjana Krišto
|109,758
|19.74%
|Croats
|
|-
!2014
|1st
|Dragan Čović
|128,053
|52.20%
|Croats
|
|-
!2018
|2nd
|Dragan Čović
|154,819
|36.14%
|Croats
|
|-
!2022
|2nd
|Borjana Krišto
|180,255
|44.20%
|Croats
|
|}
Cantonal elections
{|class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="text-align:center; width:72%; line-height:126%; margin-bottom:0"
|-
!rowspan=2| Cantonal election !!colspan=14|Cantonal Assembly
|-
! Una-Sana !! Posavina !! Tuzla !! Zenica-Doboj !! Bosnian Podrinje Goražde !! Central Bosnia !! Herzegovina-Neretva !! West Herzegovina !! Sarajevo !! Canton 10 !! Total won / Total contested
|-
! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!
|-
|1996||||||||||||||||||||||
|-
|1998||||||||||||||||||||||
|-
|2000||||||||||||||||||||||
|-
|2002||||||||||||||||||||||
|-
|2006||||||||||||||||||||||
|-
|2010||||||||||||||||||||||
|-
|2014||||||||||||||||||||||
|-
|2018||||||||||||||||||||||
|-
|2022||||||||||||||||||||||
|}
See also
- Croatian Democratic Union
- Croatian Democratic Union 1990