"I have always advocated the position that if somebody is a Croatian national and has Croatian citizenship, then they have the same rights as others. We cannot have second-class citizens and all who have citizenship are equal before the Constitution and have the same rights and obligations," Sanader said in Brussels when asked to comment on the decision of the Constitutional Court.
Sanader was in Brussels to attend a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the North Atlantic Council.
Constitutional Court judges today unanimously annulled a part of the 2001 Law on Amendments to the Law on Referendum which read that Croatian nationals who have permanent residence in Croatia and who reside in Croatia for at least one year without interruption, are entitled to take part in a state referendum.
It was decided that this provision was unconstitutional because it resulted in inequality before the law and stripped Croatian nationals without permanent residence in Croatia of the right to vote in referendums.
Constitutional Court judges decided that all Croatian citizens have the right to vote in referendums, regardless of their place of residence and that this right can be restricted only by the Constitution and not by laws.