ZAGREB, Oct 16 (Hina) - Members of ethnic minorities in Croatia will have the right to vote only once at the coming parliamentary elections. As a result, they will have to opt either for voting for a political party slate or for
voting for candidates of ethnic minorities at the ballot.
ZAGREB, Oct 16 (Hina) - Members of ethnic minorities in Croatia will
have the right to vote only once at the coming parliamentary
elections. As a result, they will have to opt either for voting for a
political party slate or for voting for candidates of ethnic
minorities at the ballot. #L#
On Thursday morning the parliament refused to give an authentic
interpretation of the electoral law's provision which deputies and
associations of national minorities refer to when they insist on
positive discrimination.
Parliamentary committees for legislation and for constitution and
political system believe that no interpretation of the said law is
necessary, and 71 MPs voted for the committees' proposal, 33 were
against and four abstained.
The committees insist that the Constitution, the constitutional
law on minorities' rights and the electoral law clearly define the
matter and do not enable minorities' members to have double voting
rights.
The thirty three MPs who voted against the committees' proposal
include deputies of the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS), the
Croatian People's Party (HNS), the Liberal Party (LS) and ethnic
minorities' deputies as well as some MPs from the ranks of the
ruling Social Democratic Party (SDP).
During a discussion before the vote in parliament, Furio Radin of
the club of ethnic minorities' MPs, appealed to parliament to
enable minorities double voting rights.
During yesterday's parliament debate on the issue, Vesna Pusic of
the HNS club, cautioned that a situation in which laws were not
respected could lead to the annulment of the results of
parliamentary elections and this was a great responsibility which
MPs were taking on.
On Thursday, Zlatko Kramaric of the LS club warned that stripping
minorities of double voting rights could trigger off a wave of
complaints to be lodged with the Constitutional Court on irregular
organisation of the parliamentary elections.
Such a situation could happen, as elections could be held contrary
to the Constitution and the constitutional law on ethnic
minorities' rights which stipulate that minorities can be given
special franchise besides universal franchise, which the electoral
law failed to define, Kramaric said.
Clubs of several parliamentary parties (HDZ, SDP, HB, HIP HSP/HKDU)
opposing the interpretation of the electoral law, stressed the said
constitutional law clearly defined the number of ethnic
minorities' deputies to the Sabor, and the introduction of positive
discrimination would lead to exceeding that figure.
(hina) ms sb