I appointed him to the position in order to obstruct strong Croatian resistance to dualism established by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 thus preserving the Austrian sovereignty and Empire from possible breakdown. The almost 20-year long Khuen-Héderváry's reign became referred to in Croatia as "khuenovština", meaning the type of governance characterized by political arbitrariness, violence, persecution of opponents and corruption. The basic task of Khuen-Héderváry was to carry out a policy consistent with Emperor Franz Joseph's demands, not wanting to touch into empires' dualism. Thus, Khuen-Hédérvary consistently prevented Croats from achieving greater autonomy. His influence over Croatian politics was accomplished with the help of the pro-unitarian People's Party, with whom he gained the majority of seats in the Croatian Parliament at the 1884 parliamentary election. Khuen-Héderváry's efforts to maintain political power were greatly supported by the Serbs, in particular, members of the Serbian caucus in the Croatian Parliament, who were colloquially called "Khuen's Serbs". He supported the Serbian institutions and elite and its disproportionately strong influence in Croatian politics and economy. In 1884 he passed a set of "Serbian" laws, extended in 1887, by which the position of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serbs in Croatia-Slavonia was arranged. During Khuen-Héderváry's reign, four out of eight Croatian county prefects, Deputy Ban and Speak of the Parliament were Serbs, and Serbs occupied the highest ranks in the judiciary. Due to his close cooperation with Serbs, he was sometimes nicknamed "Serbian ban". The main goal of favouring the Serbs was to encourage inter-ethnic (Croat/Serb) conflicts which would lead to the preventing of resistance against the Empires' state policies. Between 1885 and 1887, he reorganized the Croatian judiciary and administration by placing them under the Ban's authority. The freedom of public expression and press were considerably reduced. On 5 February 1886, following his initiative, the Parliament enacted the Law on Organization of Counties and the Administration in Counties and Districts (Zakon o ustroju županija i uređenju uprave u županijah i kotarih). According to this law, Croatia was divided into eight counties, each of them governed by a prefect, all of them being politically loyal to Khuen-Héderváry, who had great authority. That is how Khuen-Héderváry wanted to strengthen his power and control over the Kingdom. After two years, in 1888, he confirmed a new electoral law according to which only the richest (2% of the population) had the right to vote. Women did not have