ZAGREB, December 22, 2019 – Voting at polling stations in Croatia’s presidential elections is proceeding smoothly, except for two cases of delayed opening of polling stations, reported by non-anonymous citizens to GONG, this election monitoring nongovernmental organisation said.
Citizens also reported not having been informed of procedures and deadlines for the registration of changes regarding the place where they planned to vote and of changes in the address of their polling station in relation to the previous election.
“Since that it was previously confirmed that party members had been appointed to electoral committees and the State Election Commission (DIP) replaced them, we call on citizens to report possible similar irregularities,” the NGO said.
GONG said that it had also received reports of organised transport of voters to polling stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The cost of transporting voters to polling stations is treated as part of electioneering costs, GONG said but noted that, in line with DIP’s opinion at the last presidential election, the cost should not be treated as such if on buses there are no pictures or messages of individual presidential candidates and the service of transport can be used by all voters under equal conditions.
In the current presidential election, an increase was registered in the number of voters who have new ID cards with permanent residence addresses abroad and it was reported in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany and Serbia, the NGO said, noting that its mobile teams were also monitoring the voting process in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
More news about the presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.
