in Croatian society. The SKH-SDP condemned the rally in advance as being harmful to inter-ethnic relations and potentially capable of increasing Croatian nationalism. Croatian media linked the rally to the anti-bureaucratic revolution in neighbouring Serbia and depicted it as a protest demanding the overthrow of the Croatian government. Conversely, Serbian media equated the SKH-SDP with the HDZ, declared the entire Croatian political spectrum nationalist and said Serbs should not take part in Croatia's electoral process. Benkovac rally A HDZ rally in Benkovac, held on 18 March, also led to substantial media coverage in Croatia and Serbia, and significantly influenced the general atmosphere surrounding the election campaign. The event drew several thousand HDZ supporters and several hundred Serbs who booed speakers and threw missiles at them. During Tuđman's address, a 62-year-old Serbian man, Boško Čubrilović, approached the podium. When he was stopped by security, Čubrilović drew a gas pistol. He was thrown to the ground; the gun was confiscated and shown to the crowd and described as the gun meant to kill Tuđman. The rally disintegrated into a mass brawl that was stopped by police. Croatian media described the incident as an assassination attempt. Čubrilović was charged with threatening the security staff, for which he was tried and convicted in late 1990. The incident increased ethnic tensions and firmly positioned ethnic issues as an important theme of the election campaign. Croatian media described the incident as an attempt to destabilize Croatia, while Serbian media said the events in Benkovac embodied the legitimate fears of Croatian Serbs brought on by the rise of Croatian nationalism embodied by Tuđman and the HDZ. Voting and results First round In the first round of voting on 22–23 April, the turnout in the election for members of the Socio-Political Council was 84.54% (2,875,061 total votes). HDZ won 41.76% of popular vote, followed by SKH-SDP and KNS at 23.59% and 10.99% respectively. Turnout in the election of members of the Council of Municipalities was 84.09% (3,433,548 total votes); HDZ led the poll, winning 43.91% of the votes cast, again followed by SKH-SDP and KNS at 25.28% and 9.37% of votes respectively. Turnout for the election of members of the Council of Associated Labour was 76.53% (1,455,365 total votes). HDZ received 32.69% of votes cast, followed by SKH-SDP at 25.06%. Independent candidates received 19.75% and KNS won 10.39% of the vote. The first round of voting decided 137