The decision to hold the referendum was made by the then Supreme State Council headed by the first Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on 25 April 1991.
The referendum on severing ties with the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was held on 19 May 1991, two weeks after a massacre in which Serb paramilitaries and JNA troops killed Croatian police officers in the eastern town of Borovo Selo.
At the referendum, 94.17 percent or 2.8 million voters voted for Croatia's independence while 126,261 persons (1.2 percent) voted against.