Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuscevic said on Wednesday that preferential voting would be introduced at the next local elections, and that the ruling Croatian Democratic Party (HDZ) was not against preferential voting but against lowering the electoral threshold to four percent.
A civil initiative calling for a referendum on election law proposed to lower the election threshold, which, the minister said, would make the parliament even more fragmented.
“The HDZ wants the will of voters to be reflected in parliament in the best possible way. That’s why we support preferential voting, which we will also introduce for local elections,” he said at a round table on the election system.
Kuscevic said lowering the electoral threshold would “introduce disorder and politicking” in parliament. The system should be such that the make-up of the representative body shows the will of the electorate in the best way, while at the same time enabling the necessary political stability.
He said the initiative wanted to gain political visibility at the expense of right wing voters and the HDZ voters so as to “push their way into parliament” by lowering the electoral threshold.
Kuscevic said the HDZ and the government believed the election law should be amended. They do not agree, however, to amending the law in a referendum, but by consensus in parliament, he added.
MP Robert Podolnjak of the opposition party Most said Kuscevic was incorrect in stating that the election system could not be changed in a referendum, adding that this had been done in Slovenia, Ireland, Italy, the UK and New Zealand.
He said MPs were in a conflict of interest when they, instead of voters, decided the conditions, the election system and the way in which MPs were elected. The initiative enabled people to say how they want to elect their representatives in parliamentary election, he added.
Croatia’s election legislation is neglected and not changing it is in the interest of political elites, said Dominik Knezovic, a member of the initiative seeking to change the election law.
He dismissed the claims by ethnic minority MPs that the second referendum question, about the number of powers of ethnic minority MPs, was meant to lure citizens to sign the initiative’s petition for a referendum to change the election system.
Constitutional law expert Mato Palic said it was not correct that rights and freedoms could not be decided in a referendum. Fundamental rights and freedoms cannot be decided in a referendum, such as the right to life or the right to freedom, but ethnic minority rights are not fundamental rights, he added.
As for the referendum petition to prevent ethnic minority MPs from participating in government formation or voting on the state budget, Palic said that was a minimal restriction.
MP Arsen Bauk of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) said that before asking the Constitutional Court to say if the referendum questions were in line with the constitution, MPs should explain why they thought the questions did not comply and that the government should establish if the required number of signatures was collected.
He said that due to procedure the Public Administration Ministry would not be able to check the signatures before July 25. He added that he was against lowering the electoral threshold and reducing the number of MPs.
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