Croatia

Minorities in Croatia Asked to Vote For the Representatives of the Minorities

 
In spite of the fact that it hasn’t officially started yet, the election campaign is gaining in intensity in a manner so well known in Croatia: lots of scandals and mutual accusations!

The representative of the Italian national minority, accused the Constitutional Court at a press conference that "by refusing to give authentic comment on the provisions of the Electoral Law that regulate the number of votes in the elections, the problem of posititive discrimination has returned to the domain of political trading" and concluded that the only possibility left for the minorities is to ask protection for the right of additional voting (voting twice: both for the minority lists and for the general lists) that is guaranteed by the Constitution in front of the International Human Rights Court in Strassbourg, having in mind that they are discriminated with the current position of the Court.
The recent refusal of the request of the minorities' associations for evaluation of the constitutionality of the Law on Election of Members of Parliament, with the conclusion by the Constitutional Court that the disputed article of the Law guarantees the general suffrage to all citizens, but that it does not regulate the number of votes that may be cast, leaving that issue to the competence of the law-makers.
The representatives of the Czech and Hungarian minorities, warned that the parties of the ruling coalition, in their mutual programme of 2000, promoted the protection of the national minorities and "promised positive discrimination".