The party was founded on 18 August 1990, with the first party convention held in Sarajevo. It has participated in all multiparty elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1991. It regularly won the support of the Croat electorate up to 2000 and took part in forming the government. It returned to power in 2002, where it remained until 2010. Since 2014, the party has once again been in power.
Throughout its history, the HDZ BiH has had nine presidents, the current one being Dragan Čović since 5 June 2005.[5] Four of the six Croat members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina have come from the party, the most recent one also being Čović, serving in office from 2014 until 2018.[5]
^Arnautović, Suad (2018). "The Presidentialisation of Political Parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Mitigated Presidentialism". In Passarelli, Gianluca (ed.). The Presidentialisation of Political Parties in the Western Balkans. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 87. ISBN978-3-319-97352-4.