'Abolishing All Mechanisms for Fixing Elections': The Citizens' Initiative to Change the Electoral System of Croatia

Abstract

This paper analyses the genesis and goals of the Croatian citizens' initiative to reform the electoral system, and the possibility of eliminating electoral engineering by major parties with similar interests through popular initiatives. The Initiative succeeded in mobilising the people on the subject of electoral reform, arguing that the existing legal framework for parliamentary elections represents a manipulative system which is unconstitutional, unfair, unrepresentative and unresponsive to voters in many ways, but changing it is not in the interest of the major parliamentary parties since the system was created by them. The most radical idea of the entire reform was to prescribe the fundamental principles of the electoral system in the Constitution and not in legislation. However, if according to foreign election observers the existing Croatian constitutional and legislative framework guarantees 'free and fair' elections and complies generally with international electoral standards, how could it be that it is perceived by voters to be problematic from the standpoint of electoral integrity? The paper argues that the problem lies in international electoral standards that are not sufficiently rigorous in prescribing rules or at least guidelines or recommendations that would place far more emphasis on respect for the principles of direct and equal suffrage, the existence of democratic multiparty systems, equal opportunities for political parties in electoral competition, free expression of popular will, and broad representativity of the parliament in the establishment of the electoral system of a given country.