ZAGREB, 6 June, 2021 - Danijel Ferić, the Social Democratic Party's (SDP) candidate for Istra County Prefect, who was defeated by Boris Miletić of the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) by a slim margin of a few dozen votes, on Sunday announced a complaint against the State Electoral Commission's (DIP) decision.
The Constitution Court has a 48-hour deadline to respond to the objections to be lodged by Ferić and the SDP on Monday.
On Saturday, DIP affirmed the victory of IDS leader Boris Miletić in the election runoff on 30 May for the new Istria County prefect. During its hours-long session the commission partially upheld the objections made by Ferić and SDP observers on the count of the votes after last Sunday's election runoff.
As a result, Ferić, was given 17 more ballots, and Miletić three more ballots than they had after the count of votes immediately after the polling stations were closed. Thus, of 52,574 valid ballots Miletić and the candidate for his deputy, Tulio Demetlika, won 26,308, while Ferić and his deputy Antonella Degrassi mustered 26,268 ballots, or 40 fewer ballots. There were 2,056 invalid ballots or 3.76%.
Ferić told a news conference in Pula today that the constitutional complaint would refer to the DIP's refusal of the SDP request to check the allegations that people who actually had not been in the town of Labin during the election runoff being were registered voters who exercised their right on that day.
Ferić insists that the election runoff for the Istria County prefect were contaminated and particularly in the towns where the IDS was in power: for instance, Pula, Labin, Rovinj and Pazin.
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