Zarko Puhovski said the 14.6 per cent turnout by 4 pm showed that citizens had estimated that nothing significant was being decided at this election, that there had been no campaigning, and that they reflected a deep depression in which citizens were interested only in bare survival.
Puhovski said citizens no longer believed that any government, from the municipal to the European Union, could help them in any way, adding that this election should have been held together with next month's local elections.
Andjelko Milardovic said the campaign resembled an electioneering ban and that topics such as labour mobility upon EU accession and changes in the farming and fishing policies were not presented well.
He also criticised "a never worse media coverage" of the campaign. He expects a greater turnout in the regular 2014 EP election.
Davor Gjenero said the poor turnout could have been expected, criticising the timing of the vote. He said politicians were paying for their mistakes and that citizens were irritated by MEP's salaries and rights. He also mentioned the economic crisis and social resignation.
Dragan Zelic, executive director of the GONG NGO, said the low turnout was due to the brief and poor campaign which showed that the political elites saw voters as a voting machinery, adding that the election should have been held together with the local elections.
Under Croatia's Treaty of Accession to the European Union, Croatia, which is set to join the EU on 1 July, should have its 12 members in the European Parliament upon entering the bloc.
The five-year term of the current European Parliament, whose members were elected at the 7 June 2009 polls, expires in June 2014. Upon signing the Treaty of Accession to the EU, Croatia undertook to elect its first deputies to the EP in the event that the country joins the Union at the time when more than six months remain before the first next regular elections for members of the European Parliament.
Croatia currently has 12 observers in the European Parliament, who were appointed by the national legislature in March last year, according to the representativeness of political parties in the Sabor.
Croatia's parliament decided on 22 February that the polls for the Croatian MEPs should be organised before the country's admission to the EU, scheduled for 1 July. The relevant legislation also introduces open slates for the first time in Croatia's election practice, which means that apart from voting for the slate of their favourite party, voters can also circle the candidate they deem to be the best choice as a Croatian MEP.