The HDZ won the elections in all three municipalities, capturing eight out of 15 council seats in both Rogoznica and Pitomaca and six out of 13 seats in Kukljica.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Peasant Party (HSS) are accusing the HDZ of having used political pressure and corruption to replace the elected authorities and change the will of the electorate.
The leader of the HSS branch in Virovitica, Zeljko Pecek, told Hina on Monday he was not completely dissatisfied with the results of the polls in Pitomaca, saying that the HSS won more votes than at regular elections. The HSS would be pleased if it won as many votes at parliamentary elections, he added.
Pecek said that the Pitomaca council had been dissolved as a result of pressure and political corruption, which caused two SDP councillors and one from the HSS to leave their parties.
"The councillors who changed sides were forced to say that they had done so because of their dissatisfaction with the policy of the ruling coalition, and now it is hard to expect voters to support those whose members defected to the other side," Pecek said.
Citing public opinion surveys, he said that an increase in the HDZ's rating at state level contributed to the party's rating at local levels.
SDP vice-president Zeljka Antunovic said that the election results said nothing of her party's rating in general, because the SDP had not achieved any notable results there before.
Antunovic said that in Pitomaca and five other towns and municipalities in Virovitica County the HDZ had swung the electorate by exerting pressure on both councillors and voters.
"They used political promises and threats along the lines such as, 'if you vote for us, we will give employment to your child, and if you don't, we won't,'" she said, adding that Sunday's election results would not discourage the SDP from fighting for a different Croatia.
People's Party (HNS) spokesman Mladen Ruzman said that the attitude of the electorate could not be interpreted on the basis of yesterday's elections.
Ruzman said that voters in Rogoznica obviously divided their votes between two options -- illegal housing construction and the rule of law, while in Pitomaca the HDZ did its utmost to topple the local government. "It would be terrible if such a style became a model for the whole country," he said.
HDZ secretary-general Ivan Jarnjak said that his party was very pleased with the election results, stressing that they reflected the actual state of affairs.
Responding to accusation from the opposition, Jarnjak said that there was no point in levelling such accusations after elections and that election losers had every right to be angry.