ZAGREB, May 30, 2018 – After the “The People Decide” civic group said that it had collected enough signatures for a referendum to be held on changing the election system, Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević said on Wednesday that it would be established if enough signatures had been collected but that deciding in a referendum on minority rights was a sensitive issue.
As for whether the referendum questions are in line with the Constitution, Kuščević said that the parliament would decide whether a request would be sent to the Constitutional Court to assess if the referendum questions were in line with the Constitution. “Deciding in a referendum on human rights, minority rights and international commitments is a sensitive issue. Those matters need to be well-regulated,” Kuščević added.
“The People Decide” civil initiative said on its Facebook wall on Tuesday that it had collected enough signatures to call a referendum on changes to the election system. The group did not say how many signatures had been collected.
The signature collection campaign started on May 13 and ended on May 27. At least 10% of the electorate or 374,740 voters have to sign a petition for a referendum for it to be called.
Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said today that the referendum on changes to the election system would be held if the civic group “People Decide” had indeed collected enough authentic signatures for it. “The government will entrust the Public Administration Ministry to check the authenticity of the signatures and if it establishes that they are authentic and that their number is sufficient, we will most probably have a referendum,” Jandroković told reporters after wreath-laying ceremonies on the occasion of Parliament Day.
The procedure is clear and it is irrelevant whether I or someone else agrees with the referendum, Jandroković said when asked if he agreed to the proposed changes regarding a 4% election threshold and a 120-seat parliament.
He dismissed speculation that the SDP and the HDZ were negotiating changes to the Referendum Act. “We can talk but we will definitely insist on a non-fixed quota for Croats outside Croatia and for a postal ballot,” said Jandroković.
Asked if the parliament would ask the Constitutional Court to determine if the second referendum question, concerning minorities, was in line with the Constitution, Jandroković said that the matter had not been discussed yet. “Once we have the signatures and the procedure is completed, we will make a decision on that,” he said.
