Members of the Council warned at a session in Zagreb on Friday that quotas for representatives of ethnic minorities, notably ethnic Serbs, in city and municipal councils, were adjusted to the 2001 census instead of to voters registers compiled for local elections this May, although the election legislation suggested the latter.
The Council noted that this was to the detriment of ethnic minorities in some communities as the 2001 census did not include returnees, while the 2005 voters registers included returnees and displaced persons.
Croatian Serb representatives Vojislav Stanimirovic and Milorad Pupovac warned that for instance in the town of Knin there was a total of 18,000 voters, 7,800 of whom were Serbs. However, according to the town statute, based on figures from the 2001 census, local Serbs accounted only for one quarter (25 percent) of the town population, which was why they were given one seat in the town government.
They also accused the Central State Administration Office of having poorly prepared the elections, which they said should not have been held in local government units that had not adjusted their statutes to the Constitutional Law.