Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Zoran Milanovic said on Sunday that the decision by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to "redraw constituency boundaries" was conclusive proof that the rule of law in Croatia under the HDZ's leadership was very much threatened as the decision was made on the basis of a voter register that was not authentic and that should not have been used as the basis for such a decision.
Electoral legislation and rules are being amended within one year from the final deadline for parliamentary elections, which sets a precedent, Milanovic told reporters in his party's offices in Zagreb.
The HDZ's decision represents departure from the usual constitutional standards, good parliamentary practice, rule of law, the policy area No. 23 and anything else that is expected to make Croatia a safe country with a predictable legal political system, said Milanovic.
Milanovic said he believed the "legal trigger" for the decision was the Constitutional Court's report on the uneven weight of votes in constituencies from late 2010, which he said read that the Constitutional Court had asked the Administration Ministry for data on the voter register, but was told that the Administration Ministry did not possess such data.
"We have been asking for years that the voter register be put in order and published and that the law on residence be amended, however, not only has not this been done, but based on that forgery proposals are being made to change constituency boundaries, which constitutes changes to the electoral legislation," said Milanovic.
The SDP leader said that one should wait for a new population census to be completed before amending the Act on Constituencies.
"This gerrymandering cannot significantly alter the balance of forces in elections, but it can affect a few mandates," Milanovic said, adding that the SDP was not preoccupied by those few parliamentary mandates, but by the need to make order and establish rules.
He recalled that the existing election law, adopted in 1999 and drawn up by both left- and right-wing politicians, had not been changed in any item so far.
The HDZ Presidency on Saturday agreed on a bill on constituencies for the election of members of parliament, which the party is expected to discuss with its partners in the ruling coalition next week.
Commenting on Milanovic's criticism of the HDZ's bill, HDZ Secretary-General Branko Bacic said that amending the Act on Constituencies did not mean amending electoral legislation, adding that by accusing the HDZ of gerrymandering, the SDP was actually looking for an alibi for its defeat in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
Addressing a news conference in his party's offices, Bacic said that by proposing amendment of the Act on Constituencies the HDZ was only following recommendations by the Constitutional Court which had suggested that constituencies be harmonised in such a way to keep differences in the number of voters per constituency below five percent.
The Constitutional Court made that recommendation to the Parliament and the HDZ has simply incorporated it into the bill, said Bacic.
As for Milanovic's claim that it was illegal to redraw constituency boundaries less than a year before elections, Bacic said that such statements bore proof of the SDP's fear of losing elections.
Administration Minister Davorin Mlakar, who also attended the news conference in the HDZ's offices, said that the voter register had nothing to do with the population census because those registers were compiled according to different methods.
If the voter register were adjusted to the population census, many people could lose the right to vote, including people working outside of their place of residence or students studying away from home, Mlakar said.
HDZ officials would not comment on any details of the bill, saying they would do it after discussions with their coalition partners.
