The decision to hold the elections on 15 May (Sunday) will be published in the Official Gazette on Saturday, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said today, calling on citizens to go to the polls.
The election campaign officially starts on 24 April.
Political parties and lists of independent candidates will receive 3,000 kuna for each candidate who wins a seat in a municipal council, 4,000 kuna for each seat won in city councils and 5,000 kuna for each seat won in county councils and the Zagreb City Council.
The state secretary of the Central Office for State Administration, Antun Palaric, said the funds would be paid from local units' budgets and not from the state budget.
He added that citizens could check whether they were on voters' lists on the Office's web site (www.uprava.hr) and by SMS.
Palaric also instructed members of ethnic minorities to check whether their ethnicity was correctly stated in voters' lists.
The Ivo Sanader cabinet began today's session with a minute's silence which government members observed in honour of the deceased Pope John Paul II.
Premier Sanader described Karol Wojtyla as a great man who marked the second half of the 20th century and the start of the 21st century.
He recalled that the Pope had been a great friend of Croatia which he had visited three times, in 1994, 1997 and 2003.
(1EUR =7.45 kuna)