Given a small number of votes needed to become a minority MP, sudden increase in number of eligible voters might change the outcome of election.
In Osijek-Baranja County, there are 364 new registered voters from the Hungarian minority who were not registered for parliamentary elections in November last year, said at a press conference Šandor Juhas, an MP of the Hungarian minority and the president of the National Minorities Parliamentary Group, reports Novi List on September 7, 2016.
Juhas said that there are people in Slavonia and Baranja who visit villages and offer people 200 to 300 kuna to cross from one ethnic group to another. He accused Robert Jankovics, his rival at the election, of organizing the effort. Juhas said that the Democratic Union of Hungarians, whose candidate is Robert Jankovics, was “more or less” financed by the Hungarian government and that a representative of Hungarian government said in Batina on 21 August to all Hungarians to vote for Jankovics.
Juhas said that it was in the interest of HDZ for Jankovics to become an MP. He alleged that two weeks ago, at a HDZ meeting in Beli Manastir, that was confirmed by a prominent HDZ member Vladimir Šeks. Juhas claimed that Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić wanted to gather minority representatives in his parliamentary group, and that last week he organized a Hungarian picnic in Zagreb where Jankovics spoke.
Since some of the MPs representing national minorities are elected with a majority of just 20 or 30 votes, it is obvious that an organized influx of several hundred new voters could decide the election.
Veljko Kajtazi, an MP for the Roma national minority, confirmed that a few days ago he spoke about an attempt to “buy” Roma voters with Assistant Minister of Administration. Kajtazi said that in recent days about 600 people have changed their official nationality, of which a little less than 100 were members of the Roma community. Kajtazi pointed out that he wrote an open letter to Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić saying that Kajtazi’s opponent had been lobbying among the Roma voters telling them to vote for her or otherwise they would not receive free school textbooks which Bandić is financing with public money.
As many as 5,822 people have changed their official nationality in Croatia since the beginning of November last year until 22 August. According to the law, voters can change their nationality whenever they want, except for the final ten days before an election.
Both Kajtazi and Juhas remained in opposition in last Parliament and did not support the HDZ-MOST-Bandić ruling majority. They also refused to take part in the so-called “coalition reshuffle”, which then HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko had hoped could bring a new government without MOST.
