Doc. 8624

24 January 2000

Ad hoc Committee to observe the parliamentary elections in Croatia (3 January 2000)

Report

Bureau of the Assembly

Rapporteur: Ms Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, Switzerland, Socialist Group

A.       INTRODUCTION

1.       At the invitation of Vlatko Pavletic, the Speaker of Parliament, the Bureau of the Assembly decided to observe the legislative elections which were held on 2 and 3 January 2000. Croatia is one of the group of countries for which the procedure to monitor the honouring of obligations and commitments is under way. Following a proposal by the political groups, the Bureau established an ad hoc committee made up of the following persons, who constituted the delegation of observers:

Mr Goulet        (EDG)       France       Chair

Ms Vermot-Mangold        (SOC)       Switzerland       Rapporteur

Ms Belohorska        (EDG)       Slovakia

Mr Jakic        (LDR)       Slovenia

Mr Soendergaard        (UEL)       Denmark

Mr Speroni        (LDR)       Italy

Ms Pilar Pulgar       (EPP/CD)       Spain

Mr Popescu       (SOC)       Ukraine

Mr Van der Linden       (EPP/CD)       Netherlands

Secretariat:       John Hartland and Christine Meunier

2.       The delegation worked closely with the OSCE's Election Observation Mission of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and with the delegation of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, which was chaired by Ms Helle Degn (personal representative of the OSCE's Chairman-in-Office). A final statement was jointly prepared and presented by Ms Degn, Mr Goulet and Mr Nikolai Vulchanov (Director of the ODIHR Observer Mission) at the press conference of 4 January closing the observation exercise. This text, the press release and the programme of our delegation are contained in Appendices A, B and C.

3.       The final results have not yet been officially announced, but it is clear that the two opposition coalitions (SDP/HSLS + HSS/HNS/LS/ASH) will have a substantial majority of the 151 seats in the new Parliament, 95 (71 + 24) as against 46 for the party of the former government (HDZ). The coalition of the extreme right (HSP/HKDU) has 5 seats, and the 5 other seats are for the "minorities" (1 for the Serbs, 1 for the Hungarians, 1 for the Italians, 1 for the Czechs and Slovaks and 1 for the others).

B. THE POLITICAL, LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK

4.       The last parliamentary elections were in 1995. They were held under an election law and related legislation which Croatia promised to revise as a condition for its admission to the Council of Europe. Indeed, some improvements have been made - notably in diminishing the previous over-representation of Croatian citizens of ethnic Croatian background living outside the country, and also in facilitating election monitoring by domestic as well as international observers.

5.       However, election legislation is applied in the context of legislation on citizenship. It continues to be extremely difficult for Croatian Serbs outside the country - as well as for many Croatian Serb displaced persons in Croatia - to assert and validate their claims to citizenship and thus have the right to vote. It has been claimed that up to 10% of what should have been Croatia’s « real » electorate for these elections were disenfranchised - for the most part, Croatian Serbs. To see these criticisms in perspective, Annex « D » presents an analysis which was made of the incredibly difficult circumstances for Croatia at the time of accession to the Council of Europe in 1996; and Annex « E » presents an analysis of the related difficulties of citizenship and status of minorities.

6.       These criticisms having been - and still requiring to be - taken into account, the fact remains that the new election legislation embodied some significant improvements and was more or less effectively administered on polling day. For the first time in Croatia domestic non-partisan voters were able to monitor the polling. Election commissions at all levels had cross-party representation. Provision was made so that ethnic Croats outside the country should no longer be disproportionately represented in Parliament.

7.       In accordance with Article 71 of the Constitution (providing that the House of Representatives of the bi-cameral Parliament can have between 100 and 160 members), 12 voting constituencies were established - 10 territorial within Croatia with 14 members to be elected from each ; a special constituency for non-resident citizens (to elect up to 14 members according to the relationship between turn-out for this constituency and average turn-out per elected member throughout Croatia) ; and a separate 5-member constituency for those wishing to identify themselves as members of one or other of the five recognized ethnic or « national » minorities.

8.       This latter disposition was however administered in such a way as to require people to identify themselves publicly, for the purposes of registration, in terms of « ethnicity » or « nationality » - this giving scope, notably in the former « war-affected » areas, to obstruction, intimidation and discrimination. Moreover, the need to choose between an «ethnic » or the « general » ballot creates the potential to force an « ethnic » vote. This is certainly out-of-line with Council of Europe standards and principles.

C.       THE ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN