ZAGREB, May 17 (Hina) - The head of the State Election Commission, Ivica Crnic, said on Saturday members of national minorities had exercised their right to nominate candidates for 47% of minority councils and 28% of minority
representatives.
ZAGREB, May 17 (Hina) - The head of the State Election Commission,
Ivica Crnic, said on Saturday members of national minorities had
exercised their right to nominate candidates for 47% of minority
councils and 28% of minority representatives. #L#
Candidacies were submitted for 220 of 469 councils and 40 of 140
possible representatives' seats.
"Elections for minority councils and representatives in counties,
towns and municipalities are the first elections in which members
of national minorities elect their councils and representatives in
units of local and regional self-government, based on the
constitutional law," Crnic told reporters.
He warned that the elections were very complex as each of the 15
minorities which nominated candidates for minority councils and
representatives at county, town and municipal levels would take
part in separate votes.
Elections for members of minority councils and minority
representatives, although implemented according to the same law,
differ considerably from elections for representative bodies of
local self-government as councils and representatives are advisory
bodies in units of local and regional self-government, Crnic said.
He therefore could not say if the government would organise an
additional election in places where minorities have not nominated
any candidates. The government can, but does not have to do it,
because it could conclude that minorities did not exercise their
right to nominate candidates, he said.
According to voters' lists, almost 320,000 people have the right to
take part in the elections on the county level. This figure is much
smaller at town and municipal levels and differs from town to town
and municipality to municipality, depending on the size of a
minority and the number of nominated candidates.
"The total number of voters therefore does not have to correspond
with the number of members of national minorities in Croatia,"
Crnic added.
The nationality declared in the census is irrelevant for minority
elections because those are strictly confidential data, what
matters is the nationality entered in the voters' list, he said.
Crnic added the Interior Ministry would report to the DIP possible
incidents in polling stations.
(hina) rml