ZAGREB, July 27, 2018 – The opposition MOST party on Friday urged the government to start drafting new rules to ensure postal and electronic voting for the upcoming European Parliament elections and for the next national, presidential and local elections.
The proposal was prompted by a European Union regulation recommending that the member states introduce electronic, postal and other forms of voting so that as many people would turn out for the vote and increase the legitimacy of elections.
“This is the first time that the EU has recommended in a legislative act that all member states include in their national legislative frameworks a possibility of postal and electronic voting,” MOST MP Robert Podolnjak told a press conference in the Croatian Parliament.
“This is very important because from elections to elections the EU is seeing a decreasing voter turnout. Today the turnout is considerably below 50 percent, which questions the legitimacy of the European Parliament,” he added.
Podolnjak said that the introduction of new forms of voting would help to considerably increase the number of voters in Croatia, as has been the case in other countries, such as Germany, Estonia and Switzerland. “Surveys show that it is 16 times easier to vote online or by post than to come personally to a polling station,” he said.
MOST leader Božo Petrov said that turnout for the previous European Parliament elections was only 25 percent, while turnout for the previous Croatian Parliament elections was slightly over 50 percent. “How can you trust a government that has been elected by less than 50 percent support?” Petrov wondered.
Commenting on the latest information on the second phase of the tax reform, Petrov said that it was just “an exercise in futility”, adding that neither would workers get higher wages nor would employers be given more space for flexibility.
“This reform makes no sense because in case of a gross wage of 10,000 kuna, employers will get 60 kuna. Now you tell me what can they do with these 60 kuna and how will that ease the burden on labour?” Petrov said. He believes that the focus should be on relieving the tax burden on wages of up to 10,000 kuna, which most people earn.
