Page "History of Croatia" Paragraph 50

On 22 April and 7 May 1990, the first free multi-party elections were held in Croatia.

Franjo Tuđman's Croatian Democratic Union ( HDZ ) won by a relatively slim margin against Ivica Račan's reformed communist Party of Democratic Change ( SDP ).

However, Croatia's first-past-the-post election system enabled Tuđman to form the government relatively independently.

The HDZ's intentions were to secure independence for Croatia, contrary to the wishes of a part of the ethnic Serbs in the republic, and federal and national politicians in Belgrade.

The excessively polarized climate soon escalated into complete estrangement between the two nations and spiralled into sectarian violence.