The European Commission has declined to comment on the opinion of the Croatian State Election Commission (DIP) that Branimir Glavas can head the slates of the Croatian Democratic Party of Slavonia and Baranja (HDSSB) in the forthcoming parliamentary elections but that he cannot run as a candidate for a seat in the next parliament, while the Constitutional Court later said that he could neither head the slates nor run in the election.
The European Commission does not comment on how political parties choose their candidates and nominate them on their election slates. It is within the jurisdiction of the election commission and the Croatian legal system, said the European Enlargement Commissioner's spokesman, Peter Stano, in response to reporters' questions in Brussels on Monday.
The spokesman said that the Commission would follow the elections as part of the monitoring of Croatia's efforts to fulfil political criteria.
As for war crimes prosecution, that issue will be under scrutiny as part of the monitoring of the Judiciary and Fundamental Rights policy chapter, he added.
Last Tuesday, HDSSB President Vladimir Sisljagic asked the State Election Commission to say whether Glavas, the HDSSB founder who is currently serving a prison term in Bosnia and Herzegovina for his role in war crimes in Osijek in the early 1990s, could exercise his passive voting rights by being the head of the HDSSB slates and whether he could be an HDSSB candidate in the 4 December election for the new parliament.
Two days later, DIP said that the HDSSB slates could be identified by the name of Glavas as the head of those slates but that he could not run in the election.
The Constitutional Court overruled DIP's decision, explaining that it did not provide for the protection of the Croatian constitutional state and raised an unacceptable possibility from the point of view of constitutional law.
