ZAGREB, May 25 (Hina) - Deputies of the Italian and the Czech and Slovak minorities in the Croatian parliament, Furio Radin and Zdenka Cuhnil, said on Friday the government's decision calling elections for national minorities'
councils and representatives in local self-government units clashed with the constitutional law on minorities' rights and that it halved the number of councils of some minorities envisaged by law.
ZAGREB, May 25 (Hina) - Deputies of the Italian and the Czech and
Slovak minorities in the Croatian parliament, Furio Radin and Zdenka Cuhnil,
said on Friday the government's decision calling elections for national
minorities' councils and representatives in local self-government units clashed
with the constitutional law on minorities' rights and that it halved the
number of councils of some minorities envisaged by law. Radin and
Cuhnil told the press the government had neglected a provision giving
minorities the right to have a council in units where they make up for more
than 1.5% of the population.
They added that the government had called elections for councils only
in areas where a minority has more than 200 members, while calling elections
for minority representatives or not calling them at all in other areas.
"That's a crude and arbitrary breach of the constitution which will
cost minorities in Istria more than half its councils," said Radin.
He and Cuhnil asked that the government call by-elections, announcing
that if it did not, they would boycott elections in municipalities in which
they were short-changed and file a constitutional complaint.