ZAGREB, May 4 (Hina) - A member of an expert working group in charge of drawing up new election legislation, Smiljko Sokol, on Tuesday dismissed as unacceptable a proposal according to which the whole of Croatia would be one election
unit, with candidates being elected in line with proportional representation. During Monday's talks between the Opposition Six and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) president Drazen Budisa and Social Democratic Party (SDP) president Ivica Racan proposed a model, according to which Croatia would make a single election unit, while candidates representing Croatian citizens living outside of the country would be on party lists together with other candidates. The two party leaders said that President Tudjman had "positively" assessed their proposal, that is, the proposal "was supported". Sokol, however, supports a proposal by the expert group on
ZAGREB, May 4 (Hina) - A member of an expert working group in charge
of drawing up new election legislation, Smiljko Sokol, on Tuesday
dismissed as unacceptable a proposal according to which the whole
of Croatia would be one election unit, with candidates being
elected in line with proportional representation.
During Monday's talks between the Opposition Six and Croatian
President Franjo Tudjman, Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS)
president Drazen Budisa and Social Democratic Party (SDP)
president Ivica Racan proposed a model, according to which Croatia
would make a single election unit, while candidates representing
Croatian citizens living outside of the country would be on party
lists together with other candidates. The two party leaders said
that President Tudjman had "positively" assessed their proposal,
that is, the proposal "was supported".
Sokol, however, supports a proposal by the expert group on a
proportional election system with a number of election units.
Sokol supports a proposal by a group's member, Professor Mirjana
Kasapovic, that the question of representation of the Croatian
Diaspora be solved by introducing the so-called "non-fixed quota".
"This is a proposal which could satisfy both the Opposition and the
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)", Sokol said.
Asked about the drawbacks of introducing only one electoral unit,
Sokol said such a system existed nowhere in the world, except for
Moldova. "Experience has shown that it results in a large number of
parties in parliament and parliamentary instability", Sokol said.
(hina) jn rml