1990 College Football All-America Team
The 1990 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1990. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recognizes five selectors as "official" for the 1990 season.


1990 College Football All-America Team
They are: (1) the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA); (2) the Associated Press (AP) selected based on the votes of sports writers at AP newspapers; (3) the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA); (4) the United Press International (UPI) selected based on the votes of sports writers at UPI newspapers; and (5) the Walter Camp Football Foundation (WC). Other notable selectors included Football News, the Gannett News Service, Newspaper Enterprise Association in conjunction with World Almanac, Scripps Howard (SH), and The Sporting News (TSN).


1990 College Football All-America Team, Consensus All-Americans
The following charts identify the NCAA-recognized consensus All-Americans for the year 1990 and display which first-team designations they received.


1990 Colombian Constitutional Assembly election
Constitutional Assembly elections were held in Colombia on 9 December 1990 alongside a referendum on the Assembly itself. The Assembly sat from February to July 1991 and drew up the 1991 constitution.


1990 Colombian Constitutional Assembly election, Background
After the murder of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán in August 1989, students started a movement calling for a referendum "for peace and democracy" to be held on 21 January 1990. However, under pressure from drug cartels, the government rejected the proposal. The students then set up the "We can still save Colombia" movement, which called for a referendum alongside the general elections on 11 March 1990 on establishing a Constitutional Assembly. The referendum saw 2,235,493 voted in favour and 117,000 vote against.


1990 Colombian Constitutional Assembly election, Background
Following the unofficial referendum, President Virgilio Barco Vargas issued decree 927 on 3 May calling a referendum on electing a Constitutional Assembly alongside the presidential elections on 27 May. Although this was in violation of article 218 of the constitution, which gave Congress sole rights to reform the constitution, the referendum was approved by the Supreme Court.


1990 Colombian Constitutional Assembly election, Background
After 95% of voters approved of the election of the Assembly, elections were set for December. However, new President César Gaviria chose to reinforce the legitimacy of the Assembly by holding a second referendum on its election. Only those who voted "yes" in the referendum could then cast a vote for the Assembly.


1990 Colombian Constitutional Assembly election, Background
The Assembly was elected by proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency.


1990 Colombian Constitutional Assembly election, Results, Constitutional Assembly
Following the elections, four seats were given to guerrilla groups; two to the Popular Liberation Army, one to the Movimiento Armado Quintin Lame and one to the Workers Revolutionary Party.


1990 Colombian parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Colombia on 11 March 1990 alongside local elections and an unofficial referendum on electing a Constitutional Assembly.


1990 Colombian parliamentary election, Background
After the murder of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán in August 1989, students started a movement calling for a referendum "for peace and democracy" to be held on 21 January 1990. However, under pressure from drug cartels, the government rejected the proposal. The students then set up the "We can still save Colombia" movement, which called for a referendum alongside the general elections on 11 March 1990 on establishing a Constitutional Assembly.


1990 Colombian parliamentary election, Background
Whilst the referendum campaign remained unofficial, it was encouraged by the Ministry of Government. Voters cast votes with six ballots for various levels of government. The campaign encouraged them to add a seventh ballot, "la séptima papeleta", with their referendum vote on it.


1990 Colombian parliamentary election, Campaign
The campaign was marked by violence from left- and right-wing paramilitary groups linked to drug cartels. Several politicians were killed. Two days before the election the 19th of April Movement signed a peace treaty with the government and participated in the elections.


1990 Colombian parliamentary election, Aftermath
Following the unofficial referendum, President Virgilio Barco Vargas issued decree 927 on 3 May calling for a referendum on electing a Constitutional Assembly alongside the presidential elections on 27 May. Although this was in violation of article 218 of the constitution, which gave Congress sole rights to reform the constitution, the referendum was approved by the Supreme Court. The Assembly was elected in December 1990, and produced the 1991 constitution.


1990 Colombian presidential election
Presidential elections were held in Colombia on 27 May 1990. In an election tarnished by violence, the result was a victory for César Gaviria of the Liberal Party, who received 48.2% of the vote.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Background
The elections took place in the context of a long history of the tumultuous political environment of Colombia. After gaining independence in 1810, Colombian politics were dominated for thirty years by the conservatives, centrists, and federationists. Conservatives wished to maintain the role of the Catholic Church in society, centrists desired a centralized and powerful government with the authority to appoint leaders across the nation, and federationists wanted a nation composed of autonomous states joined by a central and limited government.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Background
Eventually the Social Conservative Party (PSC) and Liberal Party (PL) gained prominence, respectively associated with the Catholic clergy and with the merchants/artisans. After years of political violence and instability between the parties, they formed the National Front, which alternated office between the two every four years. This excluded leftist political organizations, prompting the formation of guerrilla groups like FARC, ELN, and the EPL in the 1960s followed by the April 19 Movement (M-19) in the 1970s. Eventually, the elections opened up to competition, leading to 12 main parties competing for office in the 1990 election. This even included the then demilitarized M-19 candidate Antonio Navarro Wolff.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Background, Assassinations
On 11 October 1987, potential candidate Jaime Pardo Leal was assassinated. On 3 March 1989 an attack at El Dorado airport led to the death of Patriotic Union leader José Antequera and injured future president Ernesto Samper. On 18 August the same year, Luis Carlos Galán, the Liberal Party's nominated presidential candidate and favourite for the election, was shot on stage during a rally. César Gaviria then became the party's main candidate; on 27 November Avianca Flight 203 was bombed in an attempt to kill him. Gaviria survived, but 107 people died.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Background, Assassinations
On 22 March 1990 Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, the candidate of the Patriotic Union, was assassinated, resulting in the party pulling out of the elections. Another assassination occurred on 26 April, when the AD/M-19's candidate Carlos Pizarro Leongómez was killed.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Electoral system
The 1990 presidential election were the last to use first-past-the-post voting before the 1991 Constitution implemented a two-round system.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Candidates
Gaviria won the nomination for the Liberal Party candidacy in primary elections carried out on the same day as the March 1990 parliamentary elections. Pizarro was replaced as the AD/M19 candidate by Antonio Navarro Wolff.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Campaign
On 11 March 1990, the day of the primary elections, M-19 announced their disarmament and quickly emptied their weapons, burned their uniforms, and turned in their rifles and machine guns to be melted down before abandoning their hideouts. They also signed a peace treaty with the current president, Virgilio Barco Vargas. They later inserted themselves into the election as a political party.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Campaign
After taking over Galán’s campaign, Gaviria secured a prominent 59.9% majority in the primary election, making him the Liberal party’s clear choice. The failed assassination of him bolstered his support, as he took a hard anti-trafficker political stance and supported extradition of traffickers to prison in the United States. This was a blow to the drug lords, who had done their best to stop any pro-extradition candidate from getting into office. He set out for a presidency targeting a war against the drug lords plaguing Colombia.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Campaign
Out of all major campaigns, Gaviria made it most clear that he would make no accommodations for those involved in the industry. However, Gaviria's anti-drug policies led to numerous death and terror threats. Following Galán's death, Gaviria became significantly less accessible. He hardly made public appearances and instead restricted his campaign almost entirely to television. He kept his apartment with barrels blocking the street, armed soldiers, sniffer dogs, and policemen checking all visitors with metal detectors. The political and social atmospheres were made tense with the threats of violence maintaining a strong hold over the perception of the election. But despite the tension, most were pleased with his nomination.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Opinion polls
The majority of prior polling predicted that Gaviria would win the presidential election after exit polls, following his strong win as the ruling Liberal Party’s candidate, showed Gaviria with a large lead over his opposition Hernando Duran Dussan and Ernesto Samper.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Aftermath
The election itself went smoothly, with no actual violence on election day. M-19 received 13% of the vote on its first time on the ballot. After the elections, Gaviria promised to uphold a campaign pledge to give M-19 a cabinet post.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Aftermath
Prior to the elections, Colombian citizens had been fighting for constitutional reform for many years. The elections led to the creation of a new constitution. In March 1990 university students had called for voters to place an additional ballot in the March 1990 congressional elections if they wished for a new constitution. Over a million of additional ballots were deposited. The 1990 presidential elections were also the first in which voters chose their presidential candidate from a "tarjeton", a card that had both the names and pictures printed of all presidential candidates available in the voting booth. This was a switch from prior elections where voters would walk into the voting booth with their candidate's ballot in hand, a practice long known to contribute to widespread vote-buying by local party bosses.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Aftermath
Following the presidential elections, a National Constituent Assembly was elected in December 1990 and given the mandate of reforming the constitution. On 8 June 1991 Gaviria and the Constitutional Assembly dissolved the Congress elected in March 1990, with a new Congress elected on 27 October 1991. On 4 July 1991 a new constitution was ratified by the Constituent Assembly and combined almost two decades of political reform efforts by both presidents, parties, and citizens.


1990 Colombian presidential election, Aftermath
Notable changes included modifying it so that a party only needed to win one seat in either the house of Congress or have one of its candidates win at least 50,000 votes to gain legal recognition, designating that the Senate would be elected nationally instead of on the departmental level, and incorporating unseen guarantees of indigenous rights that encompassed two reserved seats in the Senate as well as representation in Congress.


1990 Colonial Athletic Association Baseball Tournament
The 1990 Colonial Athletic Association Baseball Tournament was held at Brooks Field on the campus of UNC Wilmington in Wilmington, North Carolina from May 11 through May 14. The event determined the champion of the Colonial Athletic Association for the 1990 season. Top-seeded East Carolina won the tournament for the third time and earned the CAA's automatic bid to the 1990 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.


1990 Colonial Athletic Association Baseball Tournament
Entering the event, East Carolina had won the most championships, with two. George Mason and Richmond had each won once.


1990 Colonial Athletic Association Baseball Tournament, Format and seeding
The CAA's six teams were seeded one to six based on winning percentage from the conference's round robin regular season. They played a double-elimination tournament with first round matchups of the top and bottom seeds, second and fifth seeds, and third and fourth seeds.


1990 Colonial Athletic Association Baseball Tournament, Most Valuable Player
Calvin Brown was named Tournament Most Valuable Player. Brown was a first baseman for East Carolina.


1990 Colorado Buffaloes football team
The 1990 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the University of Colorado Boulder in the 1990 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Buffaloes offense scored 338 points while the defense allowed 160 points. Led by head coach Bill McCartney, Colorado defeated Notre Dame  10–9 in the 1991 Orange Bowl to conclude the season.


1990 Colorado Buffaloes football team
Colorado was selected national champions by AP, Berryman, Billingsley, DeVold,  FB News,   Football Research, FW, Matthews, NFF, Sporting News, and USA/CNN, and co-champion by both FACT and NCF -all NCAA-designated major selectors. Georgia Tech took the UPI Coaches poll title, with both Washington and Miami receiving national titles from other selectors.


1990 Colorado Buffaloes football team
Georgia Tech finished the season undefeated (with its record only blemished by a tie), and subsequently split the national championship with Colorado.


1990 Colorado Buffaloes football team, Season summary, vs. Tennessee
Each team dominated with its offensive strength. Mike Pritchard ran for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns as Colorado outgained Tennessee 368-135 on the ground (even with Eric Bienemy sitting out due to a one-game suspension). The Volunteers passed for 368 yards (to Colorado's 68 passing yards), and future NFL wide receivers Carl Pickens and Alvin Harper each had over 100 yards receiving and a touchdown.


1990 Colorado Buffaloes football team, Season summary, Kansas State
The Buffs scored early and often while totaling 634 yards of total offense (360 rushing).


1990 Colorado State Rams football team
The 1990 Colorado State Rams football team represented Colorado State University in the Western Athletic Conference during the 1990 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their second season under head coach Earle Bruce, the Rams compiled a 9–4 record.


1990 Colorado gubernatorial election
The 1990 Colorado gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1990. Incumbent Democrat Roy Romer defeated Republican nominee John Andrews with 61.89% of the vote.


1990 Columbia Lions football team
The 1990 Columbia Lions football team was an American football team that represented Columbia University during the 1990 NCAA Division I-AA football season. Columbia finished last in the Ivy League.


1990 Columbia Lions football team
In their second season under head coach Ray Tellier, the Lions compiled a 1–9 record and were outscored 292 to 115. Bruce Mayhew and Galen Snyder were the team captains.


1990 Columbia Lions football team
The Lions' 1–6 conference record placed eighth in the Ivy League standings. Columbia was outscored 168 to 56 by Ivy opponents.


1990 Columbia Lions football team
Columbia played its homes games at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium in Upper Manhattan, in New York City.


1990 Commonwealth Final
The 1990 Commonwealth Final was the seventh running of the Commonwealth Final as part of the qualification for the 1990 Speedway World Championship. The 1990 Final was run on 10 June at the Belle Vue Stadium in Manchester, England, and was part of the World Championship qualifying for riders from the Commonwealth nations.


1990 Commonwealth Final
Riders qualified for the Final from the Australian, British and New Zealand Championships.


1990 Commonwealth Final, 1990 Commonwealth Final
* Todd Wiltshire replaced Australian qualifier Stephen Davies. David Bargh and Gary Allan replaced New Zealand qualifiers Larry Ross and Craig Wilkie


1990 Commonwealth Games
The 1990 Commonwealth Games were held in Auckland, New Zealand from 24 January – 3 February 1990. It was the 14th Commonwealth Games, and part of New Zealand's 1990 sesquicentennial celebrations. Participants competed in ten sports: athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, judo, lawn bowls, shooting and weightlifting. The Triathlon was a demonstration event.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Host selection
The Games were awarded to Auckland on 27 July 1984 at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics. Perth, Australia, had withdrawn from the bid contest leaving New Delhi, India, as the sole opponent to Auckland's bid. New Delhi lost the hosting rights to Auckland by a margin of 1 vote, which made it the most closest host selection vote in the history of Commonwealth Games


1990 Commonwealth Games, Opening ceremony
The opening of the games comprised a variety of events, including the arrival of The Queen's representative The Prince Edward (her youngest son), the arrival of the Queen's Baton and many Māori ceremonial stories.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony itself started off with the Auckland Commonwealth Games Choir singing the Song of Welcome. Upon the arrival of The Prince Edward, the Māori in attendance, gave him a Challenge of a welcome. This is conducted by a Māori placing a wooden batton on the ground. To see if the visitor comes in peace or not, the visitor must pick it up.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Opening ceremony
The New Zealand national anthem "God Defend New Zealand" was sung during a ceremonial fourteen gun salute from nearby One Tree Hill. This was followed by the New Zealand Army Guard Commander allowing The Prince Edward to inspect the guard of honour. After which was the introduction of the participating countries of the Commonwealth, Scotland entering first as the hosts of the previous games, and New Zealand entering last as hosts. During the introduction of the countries, the choir at attendance would display the flag of the announced country with boards.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Opening ceremony
When all the athletes finally sat down, the main Māori ceremonies began. First of the Māori ceremonies was all the Māori women performing a "Song of Welcome" for the athletes with the use of Poi. The Māori women then gave some of the athletes a Hongi. Next was the Māori story of how New Zealand was formed, performed by many New Zealanders and organised by Logan Brewer. It involved a narration of how the Polynesians found their way to what was to become New Zealand.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Opening ceremony
In the middle of the performance, a re-enactment was performed of how New Zealand was formed between Rangi and Papa (the sky father and earth mother). The story then moved on to the coming of religion and European migration. This was demonstrated with a formation of the Union Jack, to show the colonisation by the British. Dame Whina Cooper then made a speech about the Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840 that brought about peace and stability of modern New Zealand.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Opening ceremony
Introduction of the European communities was next with music and native dancing from European countries such as Italy, Poland, Greece, Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, Austria, Wales and England, and music and native dancing also from Asian countries such as China, Sri Lanka and India. From here, many of the neighbouring Pacific Islanders made their entrance with the rhythmic tempo of the Pacific Island drum beat. This was to show the then complete migration of people to New Zealand.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Opening ceremony
New Zealand performer Howard Morrison then lead New Zealand in singing the folk song Tukua-a-hau. After Howard Morrison, the Queen's Baton arrived at the stadium where The Prince Edward announced the opening of the games which was followed by the Athletes Pledge.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Opening ceremony
Fireworks followed and was capped off with a night time flyover by nine A-4 Skyhawk jets of the Royal New Zealand Air Forces 75 Squadron. The ceremony was concluded by the singing of the game's motto "This is the moment" as performers and athletes exited the stadium.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Closing ceremony
A more relaxed affair was held for the 14th Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, reflecting that of Christchurch in 1974. Attended by HM The Queen of New Zealand, formality and respect played their due part in the beginning with formal salute and the acceptance of the Commonwealth Games flag to the next host city, Victoria, Canada. This was followed by a First Nations and modern Canadian dancing display.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Closing ceremony
Then the fun began with thousands of children entering the stadium with a mass jumprope demonstration, followed by the athletes themselves. The Queen then made the traditional closing speech and called for all the Commonwealth's athletes to assemble in four years time in Victoria. As the evening wore on, opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sang "Now is the Hour", a favorite New Zealand hymn, as the Royal New Zealand Air Force's A4 Skyhawks made one final swooping flyover of Mount Smart Stadium followed by fireworks. The Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, and Prince Edward then exited the stadium standing in open top vehicles.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Mascot
The mascot of the games was Goldie, representing New Zealand's national symbol the kiwi bird.


1990 Commonwealth Games, Participating teams
55 teams were represented at the 1990 Games. (Teams competing for the first time are shown in bold).


1990 Commonwealth Games, Medals by country
This is the full table of the medal count of the 1990 Commonwealth Games. These rankings sort by the number of gold medals earned by a country. The number of silvers is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze. If, after the above, countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. This follows the system used by the IOC, IAAF and BBC.


1990 Comorian presidential election
Presidential elections were held in the Comoros on 4 March 1990, with a second round on 11 March. The elections had originally been scheduled for January, but were postponed, resulting in demonstrations. Elections were held on 18 February, but were abandoned due to fraud allegations.


1990 Comorian presidential election
Although Mohamed Taki Abdoulkarim of the opposition National Union for Democracy in the Comoros received the most votes in the first round, incumbent President Said Mohamed Djohar of the Comorian Union for Progress won with 55% of the vote in the second round. They were the first multi-party elections in the Comoros since independence.


1990 Comorian presidential election
Voter turnout was 63.7% in the first round and 60.2% in the second.


1990 Connecticut Huskies football team
The 1990 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut in the 1990 NCAA Division I-AA football season. The Huskies were led by eighth year head coach Tom Jackson, and completed the season with a record of 6–5.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election
The 1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election included a three-way race for a seat left open when Governor Bill O'Neill declined to run for re-election. A Connecticut Party nominee Lowell Weicker narrowly won the election, becoming the first third-party candidate to win a gubernatorial election since the 1970s in Maine.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Background
1990 marked the end of an era in Connecticut politics in many ways. Governor William O'Neill announced that he would not seek a third term in office, ending Democrats' control of the governor's mansion that began sixteen years earlier with the election of Ella T. Grasso. Commonly remembered as a "popular" governor, O'Neill benefited by the late eighties from an improving job market and popular reception of his extensive infrastructure renovation projects.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Background
O'Neill's collaboration with a friendly legislature, which was recaptured by the Democrats in 1986 and has not shifted to Republican control to this day, meant a more active and expansive government and a slow worsening of the state's finances. Moreover, change was in the air - 1989 municipal elections saw dozens of incumbent mayors and selectmen thrown out, regardless of their party. The coalition of middle-class voters from small towns, ethnic and racial minorities and highly educated liberals that Democrats had built into a thirty-year rule of the state looked to be cracking at the seams.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Campaign
Lowell Weicker, the liberal Republican and former US Senator who lost his seat to Joseph Lieberman in 1988, announced the formation of a new party (named "A Connecticut Party" so as to appear at the top of the alphabetically-listed ballot) with an inchoate political organization intended solely to elect Weicker as Governor. The Republicans and Democrats were thus faced with an immense political challenge - nominating candidates to defeat a popular, fluidly partisan Connecticut political veteran possessing the ability to draw votes from both sides of the aisle.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Campaign
The late timing of Weicker's announcement (late July) meant that Connecticut's heavy-hitting Democrats had no time to form coherent campaigns and thus stayed out of the race, leaving Democrats to choose Congressman Bruce Morrison to run in November. Morrison suffered from poor name recognition outside his home of New Haven as well as a loss of Democratic voters' support to Weicker. Late in the campaign, Democratic politicos looked at polls showing Morrison at 10%, thirty points behind Weicker, and braced for the worst.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Campaign
Republican nominee John Rowland emerged by October as the viable challenger to Weicker, profiting mainly from Republicans' discontent with Weicker's liberal tendencies (in the Senate, he was by far the most liberal Republican and, by some measures, more liberal even than Democrat Chris Dodd) and hoping that Connecticut's large Democratic electorate would split their votes between Morrison and Weicker. Discontent with Weicker's tacit support of the broad-based income tax proved to be Rowland's campaign centerpiece. His stand against the tax appealed to the wealthy suburban class of Fairfield County, negating any personal vote Weicker may have had there. When it appeared that Rowland was gaining on Weicker in the final days of the campaign, the Republicans opened up their final broadside, accusing the former Senator of insider trading. However, going into election day, every poll showed Weicker with a considerable lead.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Results
Weicker won a plurality of the vote, 40%. Rowland managed a surprisingly strong 37%, and the Democrats narrowly avoided disaster when Morrison won just over 20%. (Had he failed to, the Democratic Party would have lost official party status and would have been forced to petition its way onto every ballot until at least 1994.) Morrison won just three towns, all with the word "Haven" in their names.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Results
His strong personal vote in the New Haven area fell off dramatically elsewhere in the state, and his winning of a mere 38% in Hartford still rates as the worst performance for a Democrat in the Capitol City for more than a century. All the Democratic strongholds - Bloomfield, New London, Mansfield, New Britain - swung to Weicker's column.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Results
Weicker's triumph could be attributed to a strong choice of running mate - lawyer Eunice Groark of Hartford - who bore the name of one of Hartford's founding families. The margins that Groark boosted in the Hartford area could certainly be said to have put Weicker over the top. Weicker won the traditionally Republican towns that were not as wealthy as some of the GOP's gold-plated Fairfield County redoubts and supposedly had less to lose from the implementation of an income tax. Towns like Woodstock, Eastford, Somers and Hartland all had large Republican votes for Weicker.


1990 Connecticut gubernatorial election, Results
Republican loyalty to Rowland, conversely, came in the wealthiest towns of the Gold Coast as well as culturally conservative and heavily Catholic locales in the Naugatuck Valley repelled by Weicker's liberal politics. The once solidly Republican Farmington Valley, additionally, began to turn away from GOP control. The process of the maturation of its suburbs from the denizens of the wealthy living in quaint pastoral surroundings into thoroughly middle-class commuter towns home increasingly to low-level service and governmental employees, as prefigured by "streetcar suburb" West Hartford, began to transform the towns into moderately liberal, cultural satellites of Hartford.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election
The 1990 Conservative Party leadership election in the United Kingdom took place on 20 November 1990 following the decision of Michael Heseltine, former Defence and Environment Secretary, to challenge Margaret Thatcher, the incumbent Prime Minister, for leadership of the Conservative Party.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election
Thatcher failed to win outright on the first ballot, and was persuaded to withdraw from the second round of voting. She announced her resignation on 22 November 1990, ending more than 15 years as Conservative leader and 11 years as Prime Minister.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Background to the contest
Discontent with Thatcher's leadership of the party had been growing over the latter years of her tenure. There were differences within the Cabinet over Thatcher's perceived intransigence in her approach to the European Economic Community. In particular, many leading Conservatives wanted Britain to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism, a move which Thatcher did not favour. In June 1989, the then Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe and Chancellor Nigel Lawson forced Thatcher to agree to the "Madrid Conditions", namely that Britain would eventually join the ERM "when the time was right". In July 1989, she retaliated by removing Howe from the Foreign Office, while making him Deputy Prime Minister (in theory a promotion but in reality removing him from a key post).


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Background to the contest
Whereas Thatcher had presided over an economic boom at the time of her third general election victory in 1987, by the autumn of 1989 interest rates had to be raised to 15% to cool inflation, which was now pushing 10%. Rates would remain at that level until October 1990. Lawson, who had clashed with Thatcher over "shadowing the Deutschmark" early in 1988, resigned as Chancellor in October 1989, unable to accept Thatcher publicly taking independent advice from the economist Alan Walters. The beneficiary was John Major, little known to the public hitherto, who had briefly been promoted to succeed Howe as Foreign Secretary in July before succeeding Lawson as Chancellor in October, putting him in pole position to succeed Thatcher.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Background to the contest
In December 1989, Thatcher was challenged for the leadership for the first time since her election to that position in 1975, by the little known 69-year-old backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer. Thatcher faced no serious threat of losing to this stalking horse challenger, but her political credibility was undermined by the fact that 60 members of the parliamentary Conservative party had not supported her, 33 voting for Meyer, 24 spoiling their ballot papers, and three not voting at all. The non-voters were reported by the next day's Glasgow Herald to include Michael Heseltine, with the same newspaper ominously reporting that Heseltine's supporters predicted that unless the Prime Minister changed "her style of leadership", she would "be on her way out next year".


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Background to the contest
Throughout 1990, the popularity both of Thatcher and her Conservative government waned considerably. The introduction of the deeply unpopular Community Charge (which opponents labelled the "poll tax") had been greeted with widespread non-payment and even a riot in Trafalgar Square in March 1990. Labour had held a lead in most of the opinion polls since mid-1989, and at the height of the poll tax controversy, at least one opinion poll had shown Labour support above 50%, a lead of more than 20 points over the Conservatives, although the Conservative parliamentary majority still stood at nearly 100 seats.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Background to the contest
By this time European leaders were discussing merging Europe's currencies to form a single currency, a move which Thatcher also did not favour, and in June Major suggested that this should be a "hard ECU", competing for use against existing national currencies; this idea was not in the end adopted. In October 1990, Major and the Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, finally obtained agreement from a reluctant Thatcher that Britain should join the ERM. By late 1990 the economy was in the first stages of recession, leading to inevitable concerns among Conservative MPs that their party might not win the next election, due by summer 1992 at the latest.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Howe's resignation triggers contest
In her Party Conference Speech early in October, Thatcher mocked the Liberal Democrats' new "bird" logo in language lifted from the famous Monty Python "Dead Parrot sketch". Only days later,  the Liberal Democrats took a seat from the Conservatives at the Eastbourne by-election. On 31 October, Thatcher spoke out firmly in the House of Commons against the vision of European integration, including a single currency, espoused by the European Commission under Jacques Delors at the recent Rome Summit, characterising it as the path to a federal Europe, and declared that her response to such a vision would be "No! No ! No!" This led to the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Howe on 1 November. However, Howe did not make his resignation speech immediately, because he had temporarily lost his voice.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Howe's resignation triggers contest
The pro-European former Cabinet minister Michael Heseltine had resigned from the Cabinet over the Westland affair in January 1986 and had been conducting himself as a Prime Minister in waiting, critical of Thatcher's leadership, ever since. He now wrote a six-page public letter to his local Association chairman, calling for more regard for the wide range of opinions in the party before leaving for a trip to the Middle East. His Association officers sent him a 97-word reply on 5 November saying that they supported Thatcher's leadership.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Howe's resignation triggers contest
The party's regional agent had been present at their meeting, although they insisted he had not interfered with their reply. At about the same time, Thatcher's press secretary Bernard Ingham briefed journalists that Heseltine had "lit the blue touch paper then retired", although he denied having demanded that Heseltine "put up or shut up"; Heseltine was also taunted along similar lines by the pro-Conservative press, including the Daily Mail and The Times. Thatcher brought the annual leadership election forward by a fortnight.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Howe's resignation triggers contest
At the Lord Mayor's Banquet on 12 November, Thatcher dismissed Howe's resignation by employing a cricketing metaphor:


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Howe's resignation triggers contest
I am still at the crease, though the bowling has been pretty hostile of late. And in case anyone doubted it, can I assure you there will be no ducking the bouncers, no stonewalling, no playing for time. The bowling's going to get hit all round the ground. That is my style.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Howe's resignation triggers contest
The next day, 13 November, Howe made his resignation speech from the backbenches, addressing his dismay at Thatcher's approach and responding to her recent cricketing metaphor by employing one of his own. Explaining how, in his opinion, her approach made it hard for British ministers to negotiate for Britain's interests in Europe, he declared:


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Howe's resignation triggers contest
It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Howe's resignation triggers contest
Howe's dramatic speech received cheers from the opposition benches and reinforced the change in general perception of Thatcher from the "Iron Lady" to a divisive and confrontational figure. The next morning, 14 November, Heseltine announced that he would challenge her for the leadership of the party.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Contest rules
The rules for Conservative leadership contests had been introduced for the first such election,  in 1965, and modified in 1975, the occasion of Thatcher's own victory over the incumbent leader Edward Heath. There would be a series of ballots of Conservative MPs, conducted by the 1922 Committee, with that committee's chairman, Cranley Onslow, as Returning Officer.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Contest rules
To win in the first round, as Thatcher had done one year before, a candidate needed not just to win an absolute majority, but also to have a lead over the runner-up of 15 per cent of the total electorate (not just those who actually voted, as had been the case until the 1975 review, but including those who abstained or spoiled their ballot papers). There were 372 Conservative MPs in November 1990 (taking into account by-election losses since 376 Conservative MPs had been elected in the June 1987 general election). Therefore, a majority of at least 56 votes was required.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Contest rules
If no candidate achieved a sufficient majority, nominations would be re-opened, so new candidates could come forward, and a second ballot would take place one week later, at which only an absolute majority would be required. If necessary, the top three candidates from the second round would then go forward to a third and final round held under the alternative vote system.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Contest rules
Many speculated that, if Thatcher did not achieve outright victory in the first round, she would either be forced to step down (opening up the field to her supporters who had previously been prevented from standing by their personal loyalty) or else might suffer further challenges from heavyweight figures. Although Heseltine was a serious leadership contender in his own right, many saw him (correctly, as it turned out) as a "stalking horse" like Meyer in 1989, who might weaken Thatcher only to pave the way for victory by a new candidate in a later round.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, First ballot
Heseltine was proposed by Neil Macfarlane (who had been a leading Thatcher backer in the 1975 contest) and Peter Tapsell. His campaign was run by Keith Hampson, Michael Mates and Peter Temple-Morris. He proposed a complete review of the poll tax but rejected Thatcher's proposal of a referendum on British membership of the mooted single European currency. Thatcher gave an interview to The Times in which she attacked his corporatist views, which made her appear extreme. Heseltine canvassed hard around Parliament whilst Thatcher was away at the Fontainebleau summit.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, First ballot
The first ballot in the election took place on Tuesday 20 November 1990. Thatcher herself was still in France on the night of the contest and therefore voted by proxy, perhaps anticipating a better result than she actually achieved.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, First ballot
Although Thatcher had obtained a clear majority, she was four votes short of the required 15% margin, so the contest had to move to a second ballot. Thatcher gave a short statement in Paris following the announcement of the result, declaring that she intended to contest the second ballot, and on her return to London the following morning declared "I fight on; I fight to win".


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, First ballot
After the first ballot result the Heseltine team boasted of momentum, which was tactically foolish in the view of his biographer Michael Crick. He argues that they should have encouraged Thatcher to remain in the contest by underplaying Heseltine's support, much as the then challenger Thatcher and her campaign manager Airey Neave had done prior to the first ballot of the 1975 contest.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, First ballot
Hurd and Major pledged their support for Thatcher, as did Cecil Parkinson, Kenneth Baker and ex-Cabinet minister Nicholas Ridley. Norman Tebbit, another ex-Cabinet minister, was part of her campaign team, along with John Wakeham. Thatcher's campaign manager, Peter Morrison, advised her to consult Cabinet members one by one on 21 November. Cabinet ministers had decided before consulting Thatcher the line they would each take: though they would support her in the second ballot, they thought that she would lose. Peter Lilley, William Waldegrave, John Gummer and Chris Patten stuck to this line.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, First ballot
Kenneth Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, became the first of her ministers to advise her that she could not win but that he could support her as Prime Minister for another five or ten years. Malcolm Rifkind said she would not win and was unsure whether he could support her in the second ballot. Peter Brooke said he would support Thatcher whatever she chose to do and that she could win "with all guns blazing". Michael Howard doubted whether she could win but said he would campaign vigorously for her.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, First ballot
Thatcher therefore decided to withdraw her candidacy on the morning of 22 November 1990 (she remained in office as Prime Minister until the contest had been concluded). As a result of this, two further candidates allowed themselves to be nominated: the Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Major.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Second ballot
The Cabinet agreed that if Heseltine became party leader, it would divide the party even further; and that one of its present members should succeed Thatcher. The only Cabinet member to endorse Heseltine for the second ballot was the Welsh Secretary, David Hunt, who had not been party to the agreement as he had been away in Tokyo. Four junior ministers openly backed Heseltine: the Welsh Office ministers Wyn Roberts and Ian Grist, and David Trippier and David Leigh.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Second ballot
Heseltine was also endorsed by a number of senior ex-ministers including: Sir Geoffrey Howe, Nigel Lawson, Lord Carrington (who as a peer had no vote), Peter Walker, David Howell, Ian Gilmour, Norman Fowler, Geoffrey Rippon, Jim Prior, Norman St John-Stevas and Paul Channon, but he had less support among younger MPs amongst whom he had done little to canvass support. Heseltine's campaign chairman Michael Mates was away for five days in the Middle East with the Defence Select Committee, of which he was chairman, so Heseltine's campaign did not have the cohesion of Major's, which was run by Norman Lamont. Heseltine's supporters, besides being older than those of the other candidates, tended to be pro-Europeans with a few populist backbenchers like David Evans, Tony Marlow and John Wilkinson.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Second ballot
Heseltine, a self-made multi-millionaire, was photographed at his country mansion Thenford House, Northamptonshire, which played poorly when set beside the stress which Major placed on his humble origins in Brixton. Major was soon seen as having the potential to lead the Conservatives to another consecutive general election victory; especially after he matched Heseltine's pledge to review the poll tax. Although ordinary members did not then have a vote in party leadership elections, they made their views known: 485 local Conservative Associations backed Major, whilst only 65 backed Heseltine and 22 backed Hurd.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Second ballot
Several MPs who backed Heseltine later faced attempts to deselect them as candidates. Thatcher lobbied hard, urging MPs who supported her to vote for Major. Hurd's Eton College education was a disadvantage, 25 years after Iain Macleod's allegation of an Etonian "magic circle" conspiracy. Around a third of the Conservative Parliamentary Party were the "payroll vote", ministers and PPSs, who could normally be expected to support the "official" line in votes.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Second ballot
The second round of voting took place on Tuesday 27 November 1990.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Second ballot
Major, seen as relatively new blood in the government, secured a commanding lead (although with fewer votes than Thatcher had obtained in the first ballot) of 185 votes to Heseltine's 131 votes and Hurd's 56.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Second ballot
Researchers later found that around 20 MPs had voted for Thatcher in the first ballot then for Heseltine in the second. However, around 30 of Heseltine's first ballot supporters, including Jerry Hayes and David Mellor, had switched to Major, and about 10, including Steven Norris, had switched to Hurd, for a net loss of 21 votes.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Third ballot
Major was two votes short of an overall majority. Under the rules then in force, a third and final round was to be held on 29 November 1990. The third round was open to the top three candidates from the second round, thus none of the second round contenders were automatically eliminated. Had all three candidates opted to continue, the final round would have been conducted using the alternative vote.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Third ballot
Nevertheless, within minutes of the second round result being announced, both Heseltine and Hurd withdrew from the contest in Major's favour. It was therefore announced by the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, Cranley Onslow, that no voting would be necessary and that Major was elected unopposed.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Reaction
The Sun, a firm supporter of Thatcher and her party since her election campaign in 1979, marked her resignation with the front-page headline "MRS T-EARS" on 23 November 1990, in reference to her breaking down in tears in front of her ministers after announcing her resignation. The accompanying photo also showed her in tears whilst being driven away from 10 Downing Street.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Reaction
Labour opposition leader Neil Kinnock (whose party had been ascendant in the opinion polls since the announcement of the poll tax more than a year earlier) described Thatcher's resignation as "good, very, very good indeed" and called for an immediate general election.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Reaction
Henry Kissinger rang Downing Street "in a very emotional state" saying her decision to resign was "worse than a death in the family" and according to notes by Charles Powell "Gorbachev had sent Shevardnadze [his foreign minister] out of a high level meeting in the Kremlin to telephone him, to find out what on earth was going on and how such a thing could be conceivable. The ambassador said that he had indeed found it very hard to explain. Indeed, there was a certain irony. Five years ago they had party coups in the Soviet Union and elections in Britain. Now it seemed to be the other way round".


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Outcome
John Major was declared the leader of the party on the evening of Tuesday 27 November 1990. Following Thatcher's formal resignation as Prime Minister, Queen Elizabeth II invited Major to form a government the next day. Douglas Hurd was re-appointed as Foreign Secretary and Michael Heseltine returned to the Cabinet as Environment Secretary, a post he had held in the early 1980s. Both Hurd and Heseltine remained key figures during the Major government, Heseltine eventually rising to become Deputy Prime Minister in 1995.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Outcome
Major's premiership began well, and he was credited with restoring a consensual style of Cabinet government after the years of forceful leadership under Thatcher. The success of the First Gulf War in early 1991 contributed to strong public support. He secured some foreign policy successes in Europe, negotiating the Maastricht Treaty after securing an opt-out from the Social Chapter and the single currency, and he sprung a surprise victory in the 1992 election, albeit with a significantly reduced majority of only 21 seats.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Outcome
Nevertheless, the political tides soon turned. The government's reputation for economic competence was destroyed by Britain's ejection from the Exchange Rate Mechanism in September 1992. A notable protest came from Thatcher's former cabinet minister Norman Tebbit at the 1992 Party Conference, that the Conservatives had been wrong to ignore Thatcher's wishes to stay out (whether Britain entered the ERM at too high an exchange rate has been debated ever since).


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Outcome
Apart from a brief period during the fuel protests in 2000, the Conservatives would not again enjoy an opinion poll lead until after the election of David Cameron as leader in 2005. The ongoing rebellion in the first half of 1993 by Conservative backbenchers against the passage of the Maastricht Treaty through the House of Commons was also deeply damaging to the government. Many of the Maastricht rebels were Thatcher supporters, and one of them, Teresa Gorman, devoted the opening chapter of her memoir of the incident to an account of the 1990 leadership contest.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Outcome
The massive Conservative defeat in 1997 at the hands of Tony Blair and New Labour was thus attributable, at least in part, to the perception of internal division over Europe which had first been exposed by the 1990 leadership election. The Conservatives would not achieve the most seats in another general election until 2010, under David Cameron, and would not win a large majority again until 2019, 32 years after the previous occasion in 1987.


1990 Conservative Party leadership election, Popular culture
The leadership contest was the subject of the 1991 TV movie Thatcher: The Final Days.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections
The Cook County, Illinois general election was held on November 6, 1990.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections
Elections were held for the offices of Assessor, Clerk, Sheriff, State's Attorney, Cook County Superintendent of Education Service Region, Treasurer, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, all 17 seats of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, both seats of the Cook County Board of Appeals, 3 seats on the Water Reclamation District Board, and judgeships on the Circuit Court of Cook County.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Election information
1990 was a midterm election year in the United States. The primaries and general elections for Cook County races coincided with those for federal (Senate and House) and those for state elections.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Election information, Voter turnout, Primary election
Turnout in the primaries was 36.93%, with 985,614 ballots cast.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Election information, Voter turnout, Primary election
Chicago saw 607,899 ballots cast, and suburban Cook County saw 30.24% turnout (with 377,715 ballots cast).


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Election information, Voter turnout, General election
The general election saw turnout of 52.75%, with 1,408,516 ballots cast. Chicago saw 750,842 ballots cast, and suburban Cook County saw 52.82% turnout (with 657,674 ballots cast).


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Assessor
In the 1990 Cook County Assessor election, incumbent fourth-term assessor Thomas Hynes, a Democrat, was reelected.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Clerk
In the 1990 Cook County Clerk election, incumbent fourth-term clerk Stanley Kusper, a Democrat, did not seek reelection, instead opting to run for both Cook County Board of Commissioners president and Cook County commissioner. Democrat David Orr was elected to succeed him.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Clerk, Primaries, Democratic
Chicago alderman David Orr won the Democratic nomination. Sutker, who placed second, had been slated by the Cook County Democratic Party organization as its endorsed candidate in the race.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Sheriff
In the 1990 Cook County Sheriff election, incumbent first-term sheriff James E. O'Grady, a Republican, was defeated by Democrat Michael F. Sheahan.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Sheriff, General election
Corruption allegations took a toll on incumbent Republican James E. O'Grady's prospects for reelection. O'Grady ultimately had failed to live up to his 1986 campaign promises of disposing of politics and corruption in the Cook County Sheriff's Office, and had become unpopular among his constituents.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Sheriff, General election
Democratic nominee Michael F. Sheahan defeated O'Grady by a broad margin. O'Grady suffered one of biggest defeats that a Republican Party nominee had experienced in a countywide Cook County election in years. Sheahan had managed to beat O'Grady in 24 of the county's 30 suburban townships and in every ward of Chicago. Sheahan had even managed to carry many of the county's Republican strongholds. Within the city of Chicago, O'Grady even trailed Harold Washington Party nominee Tommy Brewer, who was considered a political unknown.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, State's Attorney (special election)
In the 1990 Cook County State's Attorney special election, incumbent state's attorney Cecil A. Partee, a Democrat appointed in 1989 after Richard M. Daley resigned to serve as mayor of Chicago, lost reelection to Republican Jack O'Malley.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, State's Attorney (special election)
This is the last time that a non-incumbent Republican has won election to a Cook County executive office.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Superintendent of Education Service Region
In the 1990 Cook County Superintendent of Education Service Region election, incumbent fourth-term superintendent Richard J. Martwick, a Democrat, was reelected.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Superintendent of Education Service Region
This was the last election before the position was eliminated.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Treasurer
In the 1990 Cook County Treasurer election, incumbent fourth-term treasurer Edward J. Rosewell, a Democrat, was reelected.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners
In the 1990 President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners election, incumbent president George Dunne, a Democrat that had held the office since 1969, did not seek reelection. Democrat Richard Phelan was elected to succeed him.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Primaries, Democratic
Richard Phelan, a millionaire attorney from Winnetka, won the Democratic primary. He had entered the race as a political unknown. Phelan did not have a strong political organization, but ran an multimillion-dollar campaign with heavy investment in television advertising. He defeated former Illinois Appellate judge R. Eugene Pincham, Cook County clerk Stanley Kusper, and state senator Ted Lechowicz. Phelan ran on a message of change, running against the county Democratic Party establishment.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Primaries, Democratic
Originally, Kusper had been the race's frontrunner, but by election day, had been relegated to an also-ran. Lechowicz had been endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Cook County Board of Commissioners
The 1990 Cook County Board of Commissioners election saw all seventeen seats of the Cook County Board of Commissioners up for election to four-year terms in two sets of elections (ten elected from an election held in the city of Chicago and seven elected from an election held in suburban Cook County).


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Cook County Board of Commissioners
This was the last election for the Cook County Board of Commissioners done this way, as the board would switch to districts for its 1994 election.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Cook County Board of Commissioners, City of Chicago, General election
Before the general election, Democratic nominee R. Eugene Pincham left to run on the Harold Washington Party slate, and was replaced on the Democratic slate by Danny K. Davis. Republican nominee Percy V. Coleman also switched from their slate to the Harold Washington Party slate.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Cook County Board of Commissioners, Suburban Cook County, General election
Republican nominee Harold L. Tyrell was replaced on the ballot by Angelo Saviano.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Cook County Board of Appeals
In the 1990 Cook County Board of Appeals election, both seats on the board were up for election. The election was an at-large election.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Water Reclamation District Board
In the 1990 Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago election, three of the nine seats on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago board were up for election in an at-large election. All three Democratic nominees won.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Judicial elections
Partisan elections were held for judgeships on the Circuit Court of Cook County, due to vacancies. Other judgeships had retention elections.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Ballot questions
Two ballot questions were included on ballots county-wide during the November general election.


1990 Cook County, Illinois elections, Other elections
Coinciding with the primaries, elections were held to elect both the Democratic and Republican committeemen for the suburban townships.


1990 Copa Apertura
The Copa Apertura 1990 was the 20th edition of the Chilean Cup tournament. The competition started on March 18, 1990, and concluded on June 3, 1990. Only first level teams took part in the tournament. Colo-Colo won the competition for their eighth time, beating Universidad Católica 3–2 on extra-time in the final. The points system in the first round awarded 2 points for a win, increased to 3 points if the team scored 4 or more goals. In the event of a tie, each team was awarded 1 point, but no points were awarded if the score was 0–0.


1990 Copa Interamericana
The 1990 Copa Interamericana was the 13th. edition of the Copa Interamericana. The final was contested by Mexican Club América (winner of 1990 CONCACAF Champions' Cup) and Paraguayan Club Olimpia (champion of 1990 Copa Libertadores). The final was played under a two-leg format in October 1991.


1990 Copa Interamericana
The first leg was held in Estadio Defensores del Chaco in Asunción, where both teams tied 1–1. The second leg was played at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, where América beat Olimpia 2–1 therefore winning their second Interamericana trophy. During the match, América manager Carlos Miloc ran to the field to beat Olimpia player Fermín Balbuena, causing other Olimpia players going for Miloc, beating him. For those incidents, the match was interrupted for 15 minutes.


1990 Copa Interamericana
As a result of the riot, América fired Miloc, while CONCACAF penalised him with one-year suspension.


1990 Copa Libertadores
The Copa Libertadores 1990 was won by Club Olimpia after defeating Barcelona Sporting Club with a 3-1 aggregate in the finals. One of the players for Olimpia was legendary goalkeeper Ever Hugo Almeida, who retired from professional football the following year.


1990 Copa Libertadores, Group stage, Group 4
First Place Playoff MatchCA Progreso beat Defensor Sporting 4-0 to decide the first team in the group.


1990 Copa Libertadores, Second round
1 Olimpia had been drawn to face the third-placed team from Group 2, but that group was reduced to two teams after the withdrawal of Colombian teams.


1990 Copa Libertadores Finals
The 1990 Copa Libertadores Finals was the two-legged final to decide the winners of the 1990 Copa Libertadores, the 31st edition of the Copa Libertadores, South America's premier international club football tournament organised by CONMEBOL.


1990 Copa Libertadores Finals
The finals were contested in two-legged home-and-away format between Paraguayan club Olimpia and Ecuadorian club Barcelona. The first leg was hosted by Olimpia at the Estadio Defensores del Chaco in Asunción, Paraguay on 3 October 1990, while the second leg was hosted by Barcelona at the Estadio Monumental in Guayaquil, Ecuador on 10 October 1990.


1990 Copa Libertadores Finals
Olimpia won the final 3–1 on aggregate for their second Copa Libertadores title. As winners, they earned the right to play against the winners of the 1989–90 European Cup, Italian club Milan, in the 1990 Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo, Japan. They also had earned the right to play against the winners of the 1990 Supercopa Libertadores in the 1991 Recopa Sudamericana. However, as Olimpia also went on to win the Supercopa Libertadores, they were automatically awarded the Recopa Sudamericana title. Olimpia also automatically qualified for the knockout stage of the 1991 Copa Libertadores.


1990 Copa Libertadores Finals, Format
The final was planned to be played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The team that accumulated the most points – two for a win, one for a draw, zero for a loss – after the two legs was crowned champion. If the two teams had tied on points after the second leg, extra time would not be played, and a penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.


1990 Copa del Rey Final
The 1990 Copa del Rey Final was the 88th final of the King's Cup. The final was played at Mestalla Stadium in Valencia on 5 April 1990, and was won by Barcelona, who beat Real Madrid 2–0.


1990 Copa del Rey de Baloncesto
The 1990 Copa del Rey was the 54th edition of the Spanish basketball Cup. It was organized by the ACB and its Final Eight was played in Las Palmas, in the Centro Insular de Deportes between 10 and 13 February 1990.


1990 Copa del Rey de Baloncesto
This edition was played by the 24 teams of the 1989–90 ACB season. The eight first qualified teams of the previous season qualified directly to the Round of 16.


1990 Copa del Rey de Baloncesto, Final
After eliminating Real Madrid Otaysa in the previous semifinal, CAI Zaragoza beat RAM Joventut in the Final for achieving its second Cup. Mark Davis scored 44 points, the highest performance in a Copa del Rey Final.


1990 Copa del Rey de Baloncesto, Final
This was the first final without Real Madrid and FC Barcelona since 1968.


1990 Copa do Brasil
The Copa do Brasil 1990 was the 2nd staging of the Copa do Brasil.


1990 Copa do Brasil
The competition started on June 19, 1990, and concluded on November 7, 1990, with the second leg of the final, held at the Estádio Serra Dourada in Goiânia, in which Flamengo lifted the trophy for the first time with a 0-0 draw with Goiás.


1990 Copa do Brasil
Bizu, of Náutico, with seven goals, was the competition's topscorer.


1990 Copa do Brasil, Format
The competition was disputed by 32 clubs in a knock-out format where all rounds were played in two legs and the away goals rule was used.


1990 Coppa Italia Final
The 1990 Coppa Italia Final decided the winner of the 1989–90 Coppa Italia. It was held on 28 February and 25 April 1990 between Juventus and Milan. The first leg at the Stadio Comunale in Turin ended in a goalless draw while the second leg at the San Siro in Milan was followed two months later and ended in favour of Juventus, after the only goal scored by Roberto Galia.


1990 Copper Bowl
The 1990 Copper Bowl featured the California Golden Bears and the Wyoming Cowboys.


1990 Copper Bowl
After a scoreless first quarter, Cal quarterback Mike Pawlawski threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Brian Treggs giving Cal a 7–0 lead. A 26-yard Wyoming field goal cut the margin to 7–3 at halftime. In the third quarter, Cal added a 46-yard field goal to take a 10–3 lead. In the fourth quarter, Eric Zomalt scored on a 4-yard touchdown run increasing Cal's lead to 17–3. Wyoming scored on an 11-yard Daffer run, and attempted a 2-point conversion that failed, to make the score 17–9. They later scored on a 70-yard punt return, but the 2-point conversion attempt again failed, leaving the final score 17–15.


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite
A plebiscite for the ratification of the organic act creating the Cordillera Autonomous Region was held on January 30, 1990, to ask if the voters in the Cordillera Administrative Region wanted to be an autonomous region under Republic Act No. 6766. The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) consists of the provinces of Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao, and Mountain Province, and the city of Baguio. Only Ifugao voted in favor of autonomy, and a Supreme Court case later disallowed the creation of an autonomous region with just one province.


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite
This was the first attempt by the Cordillera autonomy movement to create an autonomous region after years of conflict by the Cordillera People's Liberation Army. A second plebiscite in 1998 resulted in Apayao (by then separated from Kalinga) voting for autonomy, and an establishment of an autonomous region still failed.


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite, Background
A plebiscite was held concerning the establishment of an autonomous region in the Cordilleras on January 30, 1990 via ratification of Republic Act No. 6766, otherwise known as "An Act Providing for an Organic Act for the Cordillera Autonomous Region". Voters registered in the component localities of the Cordillera Administrative Region (provinces of Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao, and Mountain Province, and the highly urbanized city of Baguio, which is not included in any province) participating in the vote. As per law, only provinces (and Baguio) which voted in favor of the ratification of the law would constitute part of the new Cordillera Autonomous Region.


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite, Campaign
In the run-up to the plebiscite, the Baguio City Council and the Benguet Provincial Board both voted for the exclusion of their localities from the autonomous region due to what they described as "lopsided" tax-sharing system, where both Baguio and Benguet, the most prosperous places in the would-be autonomous region, be subsidizing the rest of the region.


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite, Campaign
Conrado Balweg's group campaigned for a "no" vote in the plebiscite. Balweg said that the organic act is "a bogus law because what we fought for is not there."


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite, Results
Initial results showed voters in five provinces and in Baguio rejecting autonomy, with only Ifugao favoring inclusion. Vice President Salvador Laurel, who earlier predicted the rejection  of the measure, said that the government should seriously consider switching to a federal system, and that it, and the earlier rejection of autonomy in a Mindanao plebiscite is a significant victory for the Nacionalista Party.


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite, Results
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) declared on February 14, 1990 that the plebiscite failed in Baguio and in all provinces except Ifugao. With the rejection being apparent, it was suggested to bring the question if establishing the Cordillera Autonomous Region with Ifugao as its sole component province to the COMELEC. According to Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., the rejection was based on lowlander settlers not considering themselves as Cordillerans, hence rejecting the law, while the highlander communities preferred the status quo. Analysts said that highlanders rejected the autonomy as they see the Act as a mere tool of the economic and political classes to perpetuate their exploitation, and that vested interests of politicians and multinational corporations would even "strengthen their dominion in the region".


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite, Aftermath
The Commission on Elections issued a resolution on February 14, 1990 declaring that Ifugao shall form the Cordillera Autonomous Region. In March 1990, then-President Corazon Aquino ordered for the reorganization of government offices in the impending creation of the Cordillera Autonomous Region, with Ifugao as the sole province.


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite, Aftermath
In December 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that the constitution prohibited a single province constituting an autonomous region, so Ifugao was not made an autonomous region to itself, and returned to the Cordillera Administrative Region.


1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite, Aftermath
Congress passed another law as an organic act for Cordillera autonomy in December 1997. A second plebiscite a year later was resoundingly rejected, with only Apayao (by then a separate province) voting for autonomy.


1990 Cork Intermediate Hurling Championship
The 1990 Cork Intermediate Hurling Championship was the 81st staging of the Cork Intermediate Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Cork County Board in 1909. The draw for the opening round fixtures took place on 17 December 1989. The championship began on 27 May 1990 and ended on 23 September 1990.


1990 Cork Intermediate Hurling Championship
On 23 September 1990, St. Finbarr's won the championship following a 1-08 to 0-10 defeat of Tracton in the final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. This was their first ever championship title.


1990 Cork Intermediate Hurling Championship
Mallow's Ronan Sheehan was the championship's top scorer with 0-37.


1990 Cork Junior A Hurling Championship
The 1990 Cork Junior A Hurling Championship was the 93rd staging of the Cork Junior A Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Cork County Board. The championship began on 7 October 1990 and ended on 18 November 1990.


1990 Cork Junior A Hurling Championship
On 18 November 1990, Midleton won the championship following a 1–15 to 1–09 defeat of Ballincollig in the final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. This was their fourth championship title overall and their first title since 1984.


1990 Cork Senior Football Championship
The 1990 Cork Senior Football Championship was the 102nd staging of the Cork Senior Football Championship since its establishment by the Cork County Board in 1887. The draw for the opening round fixtures took place on 17 December 1989. The championship began on 20 April 1990 and ended on 4 November 1990.


1990 Cork Senior Football Championship
Castlehaven entered the championship as the defending champions, however, they were defeated by Muskerry in the second round.


1990 Cork Senior Football Championship
On 4 November 1990, Duhallow won the championship following an 0-08 to 0-06 defeat of St. Finbarr's in the final. This was their second championship title overall and their first title since 1936.


1990 Cork Senior Football Championship
Colm O'Neill and Dave Barry were the championship's joint top scorers with 0-21.


1990 Cork Senior Hurling Championship
The 1990 Cork Senior Hurling Championship was the 102nd staging of the Cork Senior Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Cork County Board in 1887. The championship ended on 1 October 1989.


1990 Cork Senior Hurling Championship
On 21 October 1990, Na Piarsaigh won the championship following a 2-7 to 1-8 defeat of St. Finbarr's in a replay of the final. This was their first championship title.


1990 Cornell Big Red football team
The 1990 Cornell Big Red football team represented Cornell University in the 1990 NCAA Division I-AA football season as a member of the Ivy League. The Big Red were led by first-year head coach Jim Hofher and played their home games at Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red finished the season 7–3 overall and 6–1 in Ivy League play to win Cornell's third Ivy League championship, sharing the title with Dartmouth.


1990 Costa Rican general election
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 4 February 1990. Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) won the presidential election, whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 81.8%.


1990 Costa Rican general election
Unlike previous elections, Calderon's nomination was not undisputed. Despite expressing that he would not run again for President after the results of the previous race, he was eventually convinced by his followers. Yet, young former minister and business man Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría from the liberal faction inside PUSC choose to face Calderón at the primaries. Former deputy José Hine from PUSC's left wing also run with testimonial results.


1990 Costa Rican general election
Despite the fact that Rodríguez clearly had no chance against Calderón, his candidacy was considered a smart move, as he would start to be in the spotlight and helping his way in future nominations. As expected, Calderón won the primary election with 75% of the votes. On the other sidewalk former vice president Carlos Manuel Castillo won over young minister Rolando Araya Monge (nephew of ex-president Luis Alberto Monge) in PLN's primaries after a very hostile and traumatic campaign, in which Castillo even accused Araya of links with Narcotraffic, something that weakened PLN. Minor parties proliferated in this election, with up to 12 different parties taking part, of which only left-wing coalition United People having some relevance with sociologist Victor Daniel Camacho as nominee earning 3% of the votes.


1990 Cottesloe state by-election
The 1990 Cottesloe state by-election was a by-election for the seat of Cottesloe in the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia held on 11 August 1990. It was triggered by the resignation of Bill Hassell (the sitting Liberal member and former leader of the opposition) on 28 June 1990. The Liberal Party retained Cottesloe at the election with an increased majority, with Colin Barnett (an economist) securing 70.26 percent of the two-party-preferred vote. The Labor Party did not field a candidate.


1990 Cottesloe state by-election, Background
Bill Hassell had held Cottesloe for the Liberal Party since the 1977 state election. He replaced Ray O'Connor as leader of the Liberal Party (and thus as leader of the opposition) in February 1984, but was replaced as leader by Barry MacKinnon in November 1986, having lost the 1986 election earlier in the year. He remained in the shadow ministry until shortly before his resignation from parliament, which occurred on 28 June 1990. The writ for the by-election was issued on 10 July, with the close of nominations on 18 July. Polling day was on 11 August, with the writ returned on 22 August.


1990 Cottesloe state by-election, Aftermath
Barnett has retained Cottesloe at every state election since 1990. He was a minister in the government of Richard Court, and was deputy leader from 1993 to 2001. He led the party from 2001 to 2005 without electoral success, but was re-elected leader prior to the 2008 state election and subsequently became premier, a position which he held until 2017.


1990 Cotton Bowl Classic
The 1990 Cotton Bowl Classic featured the Tennessee Volunteers and the Arkansas Razorbacks.


1990 Cotton Bowl Classic, Background
The Razorbacks won their 2nd consecutive Southwest Conference championship, attended their 6th consecutive bowl appearance and second consecutive Cotton Bowl Classic. A loss to Texas midway through the season made them fall from #7 to #18, but they bounced back to finish #10 at the end of the season. The Volunteers were co champions of the Southeastern Conference with Auburn and Alabama (who gave the Vols their only loss) after a 5-6 campaign the previous year. It was their first Cotton Bowl Classic since 1969.


1990 Cotton Bowl Classic, Game summary
Despite being outgained in yards and first downs, Tennessee edged out a win, aided by Chuck Webb's 250 yards of rushing on 26 attempts and Arkansas' three turnovers. It was a Greg Burke field goal that started off the scoring less than five minutes into the game. But Arkansas retaliated with a Barry Foster touchdown run four minutes later. Nine minutes into the second quarter, Carl Pickens intercepted a Quinn Grovey pass while the Razorbacks were in Vols territory, returning it to the 13. Two plays later, Anthony Morgan caught an 84 yard touchdown pass from Andy Kelly.


1990 Cotton Bowl Classic, Game summary
Chuck Webb added in a touchdown run to make the lead 17-6 at halftime. Arkansas was driving and was at the Vols 32 when Barry Foster fumbled and Martin Williams recovered it. 8 plays and 68 yards later, Greg Amsler scored on a touchdown run to make the lead 24-6. Midway through the quarter the Razorbacks narrowed the lead with a James Rouse touchdown run. But Webb ran in for his second touchdown of the day to make the lead 18 again.


1990 Cotton Bowl Classic, Game summary
14 seconds into the fourth quarter, Foster scored on another touchdown run and scored a conversion to make it 31-21. Arkansas had three more drives in the quarter, but only managed seven points out of them, turning the ball over on downs on one, and missing a field goal on the other. The Razorbacks scored with 1:25 remaining on a Billy Winston pass from Grovey to narrow it to 31-27 after the missed conversion. Arkansas tried to get the ball back on the onside kick, but Alvin Harper of the Vols recovered, as they ran out the clock and won their first Cotton Bowl Classic since 1951.


1990 Cotton Bowl Classic, Aftermath
Hatfield left for Clemson after the season, and Arkansas has not won a conference championship since 1989. It would take Arkansas 10 years to reach another Cotton Bowl Classic. The Volunteers would not reach the Classic again until 2001.


1990 Country Music Association Awards
The 1990 Country Music Association Awards, 24th Ceremony, was held on Monday October 8, 1990, at the Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by CMA Award Winners, Reba McEntire and Randy Travis.


1990 County Championship
The 1990 Britannic Assurance County Championship was the 91st officially organised running of the County Championship. Middlesex won the Championship title.


1990 Coupe de France Final
The 1990 Coupe de France Final was a football match held at Parc des Princes, Paris on June 2, 1990, that saw Montpellier HSC defeat RC Paris 2–1 in extra-time thanks to goals by Laurent Blanc and Kader Ferhaoui.


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
The 1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré was the 42nd edition of the cycle race and was held from 28 May to 4 June 1990. The race started in Aix-les-Bains and finished in Annecy. The race was won by Robert Millar of the Z-Tomasso team.


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Teams
Sixteen teams, containing a total of 128 riders, participated in the race:


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Stages, Stage 1
28 May 1990 – Aix-les-Bains to Aix-les-Bains, 139 km (86.4 mi)


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Stages, Stage 2
29 May 1990 – Aix-les-Bains to L'Isle-d'Abeau, 183.9 km (114.3 mi)


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Stages, Stage 3
30 May 1990 – Annonay to Aubenas, 171 km (106.3 mi)


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Stages, Stage 4
31 May 1990 – Vals-les-Bains to Avignon, 183 km (113.7 mi)


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Stages, Stage 5
1 June 1990 – Avignon to Gap, 196 km (121.8 mi)


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Stages, Stage 6
2 June 1990 – Gap to Allevard-les-Bains, 209 km (129.9 mi)


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Stages, Stage 7
3 June 1990 – Allevard-les-Bains to Annecy, 177.5 km (110.3 mi)


1990 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Stages, Stage 8
4 June 1990 – Annecy to Annecy, 37.8 km (23.5 mi)


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match
On 17 October 1990 Croatia hosted the United States in an unofficial international friendly in Zagreb's Maksimir stadium. Held on the eve of the nation's independence from Yugoslavia, this was Croatia's first international match in the modern era.


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match
However, the match was considered unofficial by FIFA, because Croatia at that time was not affiliated to FIFA. Croatia was readmitted to FIFA on 3 July 1992.


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match, Background
With the abolishing of the one-party political system in SFR Yugoslavia in 1990, SR Croatia's (constituent republic within the Yugoslav federation) first parliamentary elections were held over two rounds of voting on 22 April and 7 May 1990 resulting in an overwhelming victory for the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) led by Franjo Tuđman. With the rising nationalism and ethnic tensions, several incidents took place at football matches in SR Croatia over the coming months.


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match, Background
Only six days later, on Sunday, 13 May 1990, a riot broke out at Maksimir Stadium during a Yugoslav First League match between the Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb and the Serbian club Red Star Belgrade. Dinamo midfielder 21-year-old Zvonimir Boban attacked a policeman and got a 6-month suspension by the Yugoslav FA (FSJ), causing him to miss the 1990 FIFA World Cup as well as the pre-tournament friendlies.


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match, Background
At one of those friendlies on 3 June 1990 versus the Netherlands at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb (Yugoslavia's last preparation match before the World Cup) local Croatian fans booed the Yugoslav anthem and players, while cheering for the opposing Netherlands side which won the match 0-2.


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match, Background
On 26 September 1990, several weeks into the following Yugoslav League season, another incident broke out, this time in Split. Hajduk Split's home match against Partizan Belgrade at Poljud Stadium was cancelled after local fans stormed the pitch, chased Partizan players off, tore down the Yugoslav flag from the official mast and burned it.


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match, Game
The United States was on a tour of Europe where the team was already scheduled to play Poland. Croatian businessman Jure Klarić financed the US$90,000 needed for the Americans to subsequently travel to Zagreb.


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match, Game
The exhibition took place on 17 October 1990. The match took place at the same time as the final of the 1990 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, in which several young Croatian talents played for Yugoslavia (Zvonimir Boban, Davor Šuker, Robert Jarni, Igor Štimac, Robert Prosinečki and Alen Bokšić). The exhibition was permitted by the Croat secretary of the Football Association of Yugoslavia, Ante Pavlović, who suspended the decision of the association's own committees regarding the match.


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match, Game
Despite conflicting with the Yugoslav juniors' match in the European finals, the match drew 30,000 spectators. Croatia won the match 2–1. The match was officiated by a group of Italian officials consisting of Sergio Coppetelli, Dario Boemo, and Giancarlo Dal Forno, with the Croat Atif Lipovac being the fourth official.


1990 Croatia v United States soccer match, Game
The match marked the debut of the Croatian national team's checkered jersey, designed by Miroslav Šutej who also designed the modern Flag of Croatia and the banknotes for the Croatian kuna.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in the Socialist Republic of Croatia between 22 and 23 April 1990; the second round of voting occurred on 6–7 May. These were the first free, multi-party elections held in Croatia since 1938, and the first such elections for the Croatian Parliament since 1913. Voters elected candidates for 356 seats in the tri-cameral parliament; the turnout in the first round ranged between 76.56% and 84.54% for various parliamentary chambers. In the second round, the turnout was 74.82%.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election
The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won 205 seats, ousted the League of Communists of Croatia – Party of Democratic Reform (SKH-SDP) from power and ended 45 years of communist rule in Croatia. The new parliament convened for the first time on 30 May, elected Franjo Tuđman as President of the Croatian Presidency and soon after renamed the office to President of Croatia.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election
The election took place during a political crisis within the Yugoslav federation, the disintegration of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and growing ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs. Though the SKH-SDP was widely expected to win the elections, the HDZ took advantage of questions of nationality and political reform becoming the dominant issues of concern, and won by a wide margin. After the election, SKH-SDP lost a large proportion of its membership, many of whom crossed the party lines and joined the HDZ. The electoral campaign exacerbated ethnic rivalries, and mutually provocative actions led to deep mistrust.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election
Fear was further fomented by authorities in the neighbouring Socialist Republic of Serbia. In the months following the elections, the Croatian parliament amended the Constitution of Croatia to remove the term "Socialist" from the republic's official name, and to remove communist symbols from the flag and coat of arms of Croatia.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Background
On 10 December 1989, one day before the party's 11th Congress, the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia (Croatian: Savez komunista Hrvatske—SKH) held an emergency meeting. The body adopted a decision, by a majority of seven to six, that the next election, due to be held in early 1990, would be a free, multiparty election. At the Congress, Ivica Račan, who supported the Central Committee's decision, won the position of SKH Chairman by a small margin. Račan's victory gave support to liberal and reformist initiatives in the sphere of political administration.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Background
The Congress also supported the release of all political prisoners and the termination of all political trials. Encouraged by this change in SKH policy, the Croatian Parliament amended legislation to permit the establishment of political parties other than the SKH on 11 January 1990. Even though the decision by the SKH Central Committee of 10 December 1989 coincided with the signing of a public petition demanding free, multiparty elections, the SKH's move was not motivated by public opinion. It was based on the SKH's wish to achieve greater power and confidence through an election victory.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Background
The SKH's plans for liberalization and reform extended further. With the League of Communists of Slovenia (Slovene: Zveza komunistov Slovenije—ZKS), it put forward a proposal to hold multiparty elections and to reform the SKJ into a loose confederation of political parties in which the SKJ had no authority over associated parties, effectively eliminating the SKJ from political life. The proposal was put forward at the SKJ's 14th Extraordinary Congress on 22 January 1990, at which a confrontation primarily between the ZKS and the Serbian delegation led by Slobodan Milošević, which was supported by the majority of delegates, developed.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Background
All the ZKS's proposals were rejected and the Slovene delegates left in protest. In turn, SKH representatives demanded the Congress be adjourned, but the Serbian and Montenegrin delegates preferred to continue the Congress without the Slovenes. In response, the SKH delegates also left the Congress, effectively marking the end of the SKJ.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Electoral legislation
On 15 February, the Croatian Parliament adopted amendments to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Croatia and passed a package of electoral laws to facilitate multiparty elections, but left the parliamentary system unchanged. Elections were scheduled for all 356 seats in the tricameral parliament consisting of the Socio-Political Council (80 seats), the Council of Associated Labour (160 seats) and the Council of Municipalities (116 seats). The electoral legislation established constituencies for each parliamentary chamber, whose sizes varied greatly.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Electoral legislation
The eighty Socio-Political Council constituencies encompassed many small municipalities or parts of large ones, varying in population from fewer than 32,000 to more than 80,000. Council of Municipalities constituencies corresponded to municipalities with greater population variations of fewer than 1,000 to more than 150,000. The Associated Labour Council members were to be elected in 160 constituencies whose populations also varied greatly. There was no universal suffrage for the Associated Labour Council elections; voting was restricted to the employed, the self-employed and students.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Electoral legislation
The electoral legislation defined a two-round system of voting, in which a candidate won a single-member constituency outright if he or she gained more than 50% of votes of at least 33.3% of voters registered in the constituency. If no candidate received the required level of support, a second round was scheduled two weeks later, in which all candidates who received at least 7% of votes in the first round could take part. The candidate who received the most votes—not necessarily an absolute majority—won the constituency. The two-round system was adopted despite the objection of opposition groups, who demanded proportional representation. The first round of the elections was scheduled for 22–23 April, and the second round  for 6–7 May.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Political parties
The first opposition groups in Croatia were set up as civic associations in 1989. The first among them was the Croatian Social Liberal Union (Croatian: Hrvatski socijalno-liberalni savez—HSLS), which was founded on 20 May 1989 and was later renamed the Croatian Social Liberal Party. The Croatian Democratic Union (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska zajednica—HDZ), which would later become the main opposition to the SKH, was founded on 17 June 1989 but was registered on 25 January 1990. The HDZ held its first convention on 24–25 February 1990, when Franjo Tuđman was elected its president.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Political parties
On 1 March 1990, the Coalition of People's Accord (Croatian: Koalicija narodnog sporazuma—KNS) was formed as an alliance of the Croatian Christian Democratic Party (Croatian: Hrvatska kršćanska demokratska stranka—HKDS), the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (Croatian: Socijaldemokratska stranka Hrvatske—SDSH), the Croatian Democratic Party (Croatian: Hrvatska demokratska stranka—HDS), the HSLS and five independent candidates; Savka Dabčević-Kučar, Ivan Supek, Miko Tripalo, Dragutin Haramija and Srećko Bijelić, who were prominent figures of the 1971 Croatian Spring political movement.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Political parties
On 17 February 1990, the Serb Democratic Party was founded, but failed to spread its organization significantly beyond Knin. Generally, organizational skills of the parties varied significantly; only SKH candidates stood for election in every constituency. The HDZ did not field candidates in 82 constituencies (25 for the Council of Municipalities and 57 for the Council of Associated Labour).


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Political parties
On 5 February, Croatian authorities registered the first seven political parties, including the SKH, HDZ, HSLS and several other members of the KNS. Eighteen political parties and many independent candidates took part in the election. 1,609 candidates ran for seats in the parliament. On 20 March, the SKH decided to change its name to League of Communists of Croatia – Party of Democratic Reform (Croatian: Savez komunista Hrvatske – Stranka demokratskih promjena—SKH-SDP).


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Campaign
The election campaign took place from late March until 20 April, employing a mix of traditional devices and concepts inspired by election campaigns in the West. These largely involved the use of posters, flags bearing the Croatian chequy arms, graffiti, badges, stickers, support from entertainers and media, and the use of political rallies. Parties also relied on word of mouth, media manipulation and even paranoia. An overall lack of political experience led to the use of some awkward, distasteful or otherwise poor slogans and posters.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Campaign
SKH-SDP posters were largely devoted to Račan and his messages: "We stopped single-mindedness, achieved democracy, Croatia freely elects" and "Račan's NO to single-mindedness". The HDZ used simple messages: "One knows – HDZ" and "HDZ – our name is our agenda",  while the KNS used an image of a chessboard with the word Koalicija (Coalition) inscribed in its fields. In the initial stages of the campaign, the SDP-SKH was generally expected to win; The Economist predicted a coalition government would be formed.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Campaign
Issues of nation and elections/democracy dominated the overall campaign; economic issues were three-times-less represented than either of the former issues. A similar breakdown of campaign focus existed in the cases of the HDZ, SKH-SDP and KNS when analyzed individually. The theme of restructuring Yugoslavia as a looser confederation and, should that fail, achieving independence was reaffirmed in the campaign and accepted by Tuđman. For the SKH-SDP, the elections primarily meant a campaign for the reform of the Yugoslav federation. The HDZ's priority was building the Croatian state.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Campaign
In the run-up to the vote, 15% of Croats said they supported independence and 64% declared in favour of the proposed confederation. 37% said independence was a political priority. Parties gradually developed their ethnic profiles during the campaign. While the SDS appealed exclusively to Croatian Serb voters, surveys indicated 98% of the HDZ's voters were Croats. The KNS applied moderately nationalistic rhetoric but failed to seriously challenge the HDZ. Growing Serbian and Croatian Serb nationalism increasingly prompted Croat voters to support the HDZ.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Campaign
The SKH-SDP appealed to an ethnically mixed electorate; surveys indicated 52% of its supporters were Croats, 28% were Serbs and 17% declared themselves as Yugoslavs. Among Croatian Serbs, only 23% supported the SDS, while 46% supported the SKH-SDP. Eventually, the HDZ emerged as the most credible anti-communist party in Croatia, rejecting the arbitrary rule and corruption that many Croatians associated with 45 years of communist domination, and affirming Croatia's national and religious identity.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Campaign, Media coverage
Mainstream media in Croatia largely portrayed Tuđman and HDZ as right-wing nationalists, often as extremists who threatened Yugoslavia's continuation as a unified state. These comparisons were made following conflicting media statements by the party's leaders—especially at the HDZ general convention—which made it difficult to assess whether this was merely an electoral tactic, or whether the party's intention was to encourage Croatian nationalism. The Croatian public came to view the HDZ as the only party that could effectively "defend Croatia's national interests".


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Campaign, Media coverage
The SKH-SDP was portrayed as a party of moderates by the Croatian media, and it avoided using the term "Croatian national interests" as a major talking point, fearing it would lose the support of Croatian Serb voters. The KNS was positioned between the two but its incoherent approach and greater emphasis on individual rights rather than national issues cost it votes.


1990 Croatian parliamentary election, Campaign, Media coverage
Beginning in mid-1988, mainstream Serbian media reported that Croatia was supporting Albanian separatism in the Serbian province of Kosovo and was oppressing Croatian Serbs to pressure Serbia's leaders. Media heavily criticized the HDZ and equated it with the fascist Ustaše movement that controlled Croatia during World War II, while the possibility of a HDZ electoral victory was portrayed as a revival of the Croatian fascist state. This rhetoric was reinforced after Tuđman said the NDH was "not merely a quisling construct, but also an expression of the historical aspirations of the Croatian nation".