The government abandoned its initial plan to propose that replacing local officials requires the two-thirds majority in representative bodies.
Only citizens will be able to replace directly elected mayors and county prefects at referendums that would be launched by a representative body or at least 33 percent of registered voters.
If citizens accept the replacement of a mayor or a county prefect, the government appoints its commissioner and calls early elections.
If a representative body proposes the replacement of a local official, voters decide in a referendum also about the fate of the representative body.
If voters decide not to replace a directly elected mayor or county prefect, the representative body would be automatically dissolved.
State secretary for administration Antun Palaric said that the bill was aimed at preventing the discriminating practice of organising referendums to replace directly elected officials.
Palaric said that the government believed that a directly elected mayor cannot be without any authority, but that he also cannot have unlimited powers.