ZAGREB, Nov 7 (Hina) - The ruling coalition has more than a sufficient number of votes for the adoption of amendments to the Constitution, despite the stance voiced by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) they would vote against the
changes, chairman of the Parliament's Committee for the Constitution, Rule Book and Political System, Mato Arlovic, said Tuesday after a meeting of representatives of parliament party benches.
ZAGREB, Nov 7 (Hina) - The ruling coalition has more than a
sufficient number of votes for the adoption of amendments to the
Constitution, despite the stance voiced by the Croatian Democratic
Union (HDZ) they would vote against the changes, chairman of the
Parliament's Committee for the Constitution, Rule Book and
Political System, Mato Arlovic, said Tuesday after a meeting of
representatives of parliament party benches. #L#
A two-third majority of votes is necessary for the adoption of
amendments to the Constitution by the Parliament, that is, 101
votes.
According to some estimates, such a number of votes is impossible to
achieve unless one or two MPs of the opposition's HDZ votes for the
amendments.
The HDZ Presidency Monday decided the party would vote against
constitutional changes, arguing their suggestions and comments on
the changes had not been accepted.
This led the party bench of the Croatian Party of Rights and
Croatian Christian Democratic Union (HSP-HKDU) coalition to
believe their votes would be valuable, and announced they would set
their own conditions.
However, considering Arlovic's claim that "the number of raised
hands" is not contentious, it seems that the speculation that some
HDZ MPs would not maintain their party's stance is correct.
Arlovic said Tuesday night the aim of the meeting among party
benches was to achieve a higher degree of agreement on motioned
constitutional amendments. He said agreement had been reached
regarding a number of outstanding issues.
It had been suggested that disagreement on cases when the
Parliament could be dissolved (which was mostly criticised by the
Croatian Social Liberal Party) should be solved by adding
conditions under which the dissolution of the House of
Representatives could occur.
It was motioned that the provision that the President of the
Republic could dissolve the Lower House at the suggestion of the
Government and the co-signature of the Prime Minister be
supplemented with a condition that this would be possible only in
case the Lower House does not pass a government budget within 120
days of its forwarding into parliamentary procedure.
There is also a possibility that during the discussion on
constitutional amendments the Parliament receives a joint
amendment by the President and Government which would stipulate
that the regulation of control over secret services be exempt from
the Constitution.
"Such an amendment could be adopted, under the condition that the
issue be solved through a law on national security," Arlovic said.
(hina) lml jn