ZAGREB, April 3 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Thursday forwarded to the State Electoral Commission (DIP) decisions on calling elections for members of minority councils in municipalities, towns and counties and minority deputies
in municipal councils and town and county assemblies.
ZAGREB, April 3 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Thursday
forwarded to the State Electoral Commission (DIP) decisions on
calling elections for members of minority councils in
municipalities, towns and counties and minority deputies in
municipal councils and town and county assemblies. #L#
Minority council elections and additional local elections should
be held on May 18.
Considering that only members of national minorities will take part
in those elections, it will be necessary to regulate ways to
identify voters as members of minorities, DIP chair Ivica Crnic
said.
Elections for minority councils have been called in line with the
Constitutional Law on Minority Rights, adopted last December, and
refer to units of local and regional self-government where
minorities make up at least 1.5% of the local population (municipal
and town minority elections require more than 200 and county
elections more than 500 minority voters).
Elections for minority councils will take place in 20 counties, the
City of Zagreb, and in 79 towns and 185 municipalities.
Municipal, town and county minority councils have 10, 15 and 25
members respectively.
Members of those councils are elected exclusively by minorities for
a mandate of four years in a secret ballot.
Additional local elections for minorities under the recently
changed law on local elections will be held in areas where the
number of elected minority deputies was lower than the number
envisaged by the results of the 2001 census.
(hina) rml sb