Leaders of the Croatian Helsinki Committee and the the GONG nongovernmental organisation, as associations which requested that the constitutionality of the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities be examined, hailed the Constitutional Court's decision to annul provisions of the law, saying that this decision was expected.
The Croatian Constitutional Court on Friday annulled Article 1 of the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities, which was amended last year, saying that the provision guaranteeing in advance seats in the national parliament for one minority, namely the Serbs, was unconstitutional.
The court unanimously dismissed as unacceptable the provision under which ethnic minorities that account for more than 1.5% of the total population should be guaranteed in advance at least three seats in Parliament based on a general voting right.
