ZAGREB, September 1, 2018 – The People Decide civil initiative on Saturday criticised Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević’s statement that representatives of the initiative would not be allowed to monitor the checking of signatures collected in the initiative’s campaign for a referendum on changing the election system.
The initiative’s representatives told reporters that there was no reason whatsoever to ban its representatives from monitoring the signature checking but that there were many arguments in favour of allowing their presence, the main one being transparency of the process.
Transparency is especially important in the context of Kuščević’s earlier statements in which he spoke against the initiative and its campaign, they said.
The “People Decide” civil initiative has asked on several occasions that it be allowed to monitor the checking of signatures collected in their campaign seeking a referendum on changes to the election system and that the job of checking the signatures be entrusted to the Central Election Commission.
Kuščević said earlier this week that representatives of civil initiatives would not be allowed to monitor the checking of signatures collected for referendum petitions but that a contract would be signed with a company to do it.
