Milan Bandić was a Croatian politician and the longest-serving mayor of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Bandić was mayor almost continuously from 2000 to 2021, except during the time between his resignation in 2002 and the 2005 election. He was also suspended from exercising his powers and duties for several months after his 2014 arrest over a corruption scandal. Out of Bandić's multifaceted engagement in politics, the most noted part was his mayoralty of Zagreb, which followed the Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) first post-socialist period of government (1990–2000), and exacerbated many existing transitional problems in the city.

Elections were held on 15 May 2005 in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Following the last local elections in 2001, Milan Bandić of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) had been re-elected as the mayor of Zagreb. In 2002, an incident made him resign in favor of Deputy Mayor Vlasta Pavić, also from the SDP. Pavić remained formally in control of the city until 2005. In the 2005 elections, she was moved down the list of candidates to the 16th place, while the list holder and SDP's candidate for mayor was Bandić.