ZAGREB, 19 May (Hina) - Thirty-five years ago, Croatia held a historic referendum on Croatian independence in which its citizens decided the future of the state.
Held one year after the first multi-party democratic elections and the constitution of the first modern Croatian Parliament, the referendum of 19 May 1991 paved the way for parliamentary decisions on independence and sovereignty adopted in June and October of that year.
The decision to call the referendum was made in April by Croatia’s first president, Franjo Tuđman, during negotiations on resolving the crisis among the republics of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) and at a time when Croatia was already facing an open rebellion by part of the local Serb population.
In the referendum, citizens were offered two questions to which they could answer “for” or “against”, voting on blue and red ballots.
A total of 3.6 million voters had the right to vote.
The question on the blue ballot read: “Are you in favour of Croatia, as a sovereign and independent state guaranteeing cultural autonomy and all civil rights to Serbs and members of other nationalities in Croatia, being able to enter into an alliance of sovereign states with other republics?”
A total of 3,051,881 voters, or 83.6 percent, participated in answering this question. More than 2.8 million voters, or 93.24 percent of those who took part in the referendum, voted for, while around 127,000 voters (4.15 percent) voted against.
The question on the red ballot read: “Are you in favour of Croatia remaining in Yugoslavia as a unified federal state?”
Of the 3,051,881 voters (83.6 percent) who cast their ballots, an overwhelming majority – more than 2.8 million voters (92.2 percent) – voted against, while only 164,000 voters (5.38 percent) voted for.
Based on the directly expressed will of the citizens in the referendum, and after further negotiations with the other former Yugoslav republics on resolving the political crisis had failed, the Croatian Parliament adopted the Constitutional Decision on the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Croatia on 25 June 1991.
The outcome of the referendum also served as the basis for adopting the Decision on the termination of state and legal ties with the other republics and provinces of the SFRY, which the Croatian Parliament adopted on 8 October of the same year. With this act, Croatia formally and legally became an independent and sovereign state, the Parliament recalled.
