ZAGREB, January 5, 2019 – The Truth about the Istanbul Convention civil society organisation on Friday submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Court, proposing the revocation of the entire procedure of inspecting signatures collected for a referendum initiative to abrogate the Istanbul Convention's ratification in parliament and that a new signatures inspection be carried out by the State Election Commission in the presence of the NGO's observers.

A representative of the NGO, Kristina Pavlović, told a news conference, held outside the Constitutional Court on Friday, that the Public Administration Ministry and the APIS agency applied "bureaucratic formalism" while inspecting the signatures collected for the purpose of a referendum to declare invalid as many signatures as possible.

The NGO has called on the parliament to entrust the State Electoral Commission to conduct an independent check of the signatures and allow its observers to be present during the check.

According to the ministry's data, the Truth about the Istanbul Convention civil initiative submitted 390,916 signatures for its referendum petition, of which 345,942 were valid and 44,974 invalid. A total of 374,740 signatures are required to call a referendum.

Pavlović said more than 33,000 signatures have been declared invalid due to illegible handwriting.

More news on the referendum initiatives can be found in our Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 27, 2018 - The Truth about the Istanbul Convention referendum initiative and civil society organisation (CSO) was expected on Monday to inspect signatures collected for a referendum initiative to revoke the convention's ratification in parliament, but it refused to do so claiming that only a partial check of the signatures could be possible under the conditions they were offered.

A representative of the CSO, Kristina Pavlović, said that they had been given the opportunity to check the signatures in the APIS agency that conducted the initial check of the signatures' authenticity and declared 44,974 as invalid, only one month after the results were released by the Public Administration Ministry.

Pavlović said that it was only at a three-hour meeting at APIS that the they were informed of the conditions under which they could check the invalid signatures, namely they were not allowed to use biro pens to make notes nor to photocopy material which, she said, was the only way for the organisation to compare it with its own data to see whether anything had been added to the petition lists after they were handed over to the parliament.

She said this was important since in the few months that elapsed from when the boxes containing the petition lists were transferred from the parliament to the APIS premises, a discrepancy occurred in the number of petition lists in several boxes.

Pavlović said they were also informed that they could not check the signatures that were assessed to be illegible, adding that APIS' conditions for the inspection did not enable a proper check.

She concluded that it was obvious that the government was not interested in proper transparency. "The government is acting like a second-hand car dealer that only shows the exterior of the car and doesn't want to show the interior or the motor or its service booklet," Pavlović said.

The CSO has called on the parliament to entrust the State Electoral Commission to conduct an independent check of the signatures and allow its observers to be present during the check.

According to the ministry's data, the Truth about the Istanbul Convention civil initiative submitted 390,916 signatures for its referendum petition, of which 345,942 were valid and 44,974 invalid. A total of 374,740 signatures are required to call a referendum.

Pavlović said that the CSO had asked the ministry, but without receiving any reply, to specify how many of 33,500 signatures, which is the majority of the allegedly invalid signatures, were assessed to be illegible and how many were amended. She explained that the same handwriting on petition lists can be attributed to volunteers entering the name and surname of signatories to facilitate the signature collection procedure because of the huge interest of citizens.

For more on referendum initiatives in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, November 16, 2018 - The government on Friday sent to the parliament a new bill on financing of political activities such as election and referendum campaigns and similar activities.

Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević said that it had been established that the existing legislation had a number of deficiencies and shortcomings that affect the transparent performance of political activities and therefore the government was sending a completely new bill to parliament.

The new legislation defines for the first time what referendum activities are, and envisages the introduction of an information technology system for monitoring the funding. For that purpose, those involved in political activities are expected to submit financial reports to the State Election System.

The new legislation defines the criteria for determining the amount of funds which local authorities are supposed to set aside for annual financing of political parties. It will also regulate in a more equitable fashion the distribution of budget funds to political parties, Kuščević said.

The funds will be distributed based in the number of seats in the parliament and assemblies at local levels, considering the final results of the elections, he said. Currently, the money is distributed according to the state of affairs when legislatures are inaugurated.

The parliament and local assemblies will have the duty to present reports on the financing of political parties and independent political representatives annually.

The donations exceeding 5,000 kuna will require the conclusion of agreements between donors and donation recipients.

The upper limit for permissible costs in a campaign per slate in the election for the European Parliament will be increased from the current upper amount of 1.5 million kuna to 4 million kuna, which, Kuščević said, is half the amount of the permissible funds in the presidential election campaign.

The money to which an independent lawmaker or local councillor is entitled will be granted to the political party they join, which will put an end to the practice of giving the money directly to lawmakers or local councillors even after they become members of parties.

For more on Croatian political system, click here.

ZAGREB, October 31, 2018 - Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević said on Wednesday about 130 citizens and four or five associations had applied to see the invalid signatures collected for two referendum petitions but that the People Decide initiative was not among them, adding that this initiative did not care about truth and objectivity, but about the basest politicking.

Speaking on Croatian Radio, he said the government, in order to respond to unjustified attacks on the verification of the signatures collected, had invited citizens, initiatives, and associations to apply to see all the signatures declared invalid. He recalled that there were 40,000 invalid signatures for each referendum question.

Kuščević said about 130 citizens and four or five associations had applied to see the signatures, including the GONG election monitoring NGO and the Croatian Helsinki Committee on Human Rights. "To me, that was a big surprise and disappointment and proof that the People Decide initiative has a purely petty-political approach in pressuring the public," the minister said, adding that this initiative, although the loudest, did not have the morals to apply to see the irregularities that he said were committed during the signature collection.

The People Decide collected signatures for a referendum to change the election system.

Kuščević said the organisers of the other referendum petition, to rescind the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, had applied to see the invalid signatures. He said that perhaps members of the People Decide had applied to see the signatures as individuals but not as an initiative. "This shows how much they manipulate the people who signed the petition and how much they manipulate the public, how much they don't care about the truth, objectivity, but about the basest politicking."

Kuščević said the procedure of allowing access to the invalid signatures would be defined in a few days.

Want to read more about referendum initiatives in Croatia? Click here.

ZAGREB, October 22, 2018 - The People Decide civil initiative on Sunday called for an independent review of the signatures it had collected in a campaign for a referendum on changing the election system, saying that it suspects manipulation of the signature check that showed last week that not enough signatures had been collected for the referendum petition's two questions on the election system.

ZAGREB, October 18, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday that all interested parties would be allowed access to referendum signatures that had been found invalid.

ZAGREB, October 17, 2018 - Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević said on Wednesday that none of the two referendum initiatives managed to collect the required number of signatures for the petitions for their referenda: one on changing the election legislation and the second on the abrogation of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

ZAGREB, October 12, 2018 - Activists of the civil initiative "The Truth about the Istanbul Convention" insisted on Thursday that they had enough signatures for a referendum to invalidate the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, saying that they would fight with all means available to prove that they had enough signatures, in contrast to media reports claiming the contrary.

ZAGREB, October 11, 2018 - The Jutarnji List daily reported on Wednesday evening that the civil initiatives "The People Decide" and "The Truth About the Istanbul Convention" had failed to collect the sufficient number of signatures to call state referendums.

ZAGREB, September 1, 2018 - The People Decide civil initiative on Saturday criticised Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević's statement that representatives of the initiative would not be allowed to monitor the checking of signatures collected in the initiative's campaign for a referendum on changing the election system.