1897 Croatian parliamentary election

The 1897 elections were held during the autocratic rule of Croatian ban Károly Khuen-Héderváry. His primary task as the ban of Croatia was to preserve the Croatian-Hungarian union. Héderváry had maintained good relations with the Hungarian Liberal Party, while he relied on the National Party in Croatia to maintain the status quo. Héderváry's supporters had won the parliament majority in each of the three previous elections held during his reign, in 1884, 1887 and 1892. At the time of the election, the National Party held the parliamentary majority.[2]

Due to the makeup of the electoral law, only 2% of the nation's citizens could vote, i.e. men over thirty years old, who could pay 30 forints in tax.[3] Furthermore, Héderváry had reorganized the districts in such a way, that certain districts were majority Serbian, and he had relied on their mutual antagonization.[2]

Ban Khuen-Héderváry was unpopular for large groups of Croatian citizens for several reasons: he had suppressed Croatian nationalism, aimed at magyarization of the railways and administration, imposing the Hungarian language at schools, settling Hungarian people in areas of Croatia, as well as lessening of local autonomy.[4]

The National Party presented itself as allies of Héderváry and the Croatian-Hungarian union. The opposition to the National Party was at the time fragmented, as the Croatian Party of Rights had split into three groups: the Croatian Party of Rights, the Independent Croatian Party of Rights and the Pure Croatian Party of Rights. In August of 1986, the matica of Croatian Party of Rights and Independent National Party formed a coalition. Another opposition party was the Social Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia, however, due to their small size they weren't a major player in the elections.[4]

• Ivo Perić: Hrvatski državni sabor: 1848-2000, GIPA, Zagreb 2002.