Joint Opinion on the Draft Law on the State Election Commission of the Republic of Croatia

The Draft Law is here reviewed under benefit from discussion thereof at a Roundtable held at the Parliament Building in Zagreb on 13 December 2005, co-organised by the Central State Administration Office (CSAO) and the OSCE Mission to Croatia, with participation of the OSCE/ODHIR and the Venice Commission. The Roundtable was attended by representatives of the Croatian Government, Parliament, Constitutional Court and Supreme Court as well as academicians and non-governmental organisations. The Prime Minister Dr. Ivo Sanader and the Speaker of the Parliament, Mr Vladimir Seks, attended the opening session, and the governmental representatives included Mr Branko Hrvatin, President of the Supreme Court and of the existing SEC, and Mr Antun Palaric, State Secretary of the CSAO, which has been instrumental in the drafting of the Law Bill. - The discussion referred inter alia to an earlier Roundtable organised by the OSCE Mission in November 2004, which also was attended by the OSCE/ODHIR and the Venice Commission. It was there concluded that the adoption of a law on the SEC should be among the priorities in electoral reform.