ZAGREB, November 11, 2019 – Presidential candidate Dejan Kovač on Monday called for introducing electronic voting, saying it would increase the turnout both at home and abroad as well as enable the recently emigrated to vote who, he said, would not vote for the ruling HDZ or the opposition SDP.
Speaking at a press conference, Kovač called on Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to introduce electronic voting and give all Croatian citizens in Croatia and abroad equal voting rights.
The prerequisite already exists, the e-Citizens system, which has 750,000 users and all the necessary data security and encryption certificates, he said.
Other countries use electronic voting to make sure that all their citizens can vote, to prevent discrimination and to increase the number of people who vote, Kovac said.
He welcomed the government’s intention to take over the Information System and Information Technologies Support Agency (APIS), which is owned by the City of Zagreb.
He added, however, that Plenković should introduce electronic voting already for this year’s presidential election so that the APIS takeover “doesn’t turn out to be a pure political trade, i.e. the bailout of Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić.”
Kovač said electronic voting could make Croatia a more developed country, both technologically and democratically.
“If it’s true that 300,000 citizens have emigrated, they certainly wouldn’t vote for the HDZ or the SDP but for a third option, as they are bitter about the state because of their bad governments and bad policies,” he said, adding that the HDZ won one vote among Croatians in Ireland in May’s European elections.
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