URA submits amendments to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives: Open lists transfer power from parties to citizens

The civic movement URA submitted proposals for amendments to the Law on the Election of Councilors and Representatives that relate to preferential voting, or open lists.

"As for the GP URA, the electoral reform is not finished and cannot be finished until open lists are introduced. Changes were introduced last year, but they are cosmetic. The only essential change that represents a democratic step forward is the introduction of open lists. They mean that political power is shifting from political parties to citizens," said GP URA official Ana Novaković Đurović at a press conference.

She explained that voters, in addition to the list, will also vote for candidates who will represent them in local and state parliaments.

"Political representatives will have a greater degree of accountability that way because they are elected directly by the citizens. It is very important to restore citizens' trust in the electoral process. Trust is not at a satisfactory level," she said.

She added that it was The essence is that citizens, in addition to voting for the list, will have the opportunity to select up to 10 candidates for MPs, or up to seven for councilors.

"Our proposal also envisages the introduction of an electoral threshold for the Roma minority. According to the last census, 0,9 percent of citizens declared themselves to be Roma. We have envisaged an electoral threshold identical to the threshold for members of the Croatian people. We have also envisaged a protective mechanism for the less represented gender. Regardless of the preferential result, women will have an appropriate quota," said Novaković Đurović.

She added that they believe that women in politics start from a worse and less favorable position than their male colleagues.

"We hope to become a society that does not need to introduce quotas," she pointed out.

MP GP URA Zoran Mikić said that they chose "to preserve everything good in the legislation, and change the bad things."

"When we first introduce this, then we can think about more complex models where citizens can choose candidates from multiple lists. Very simply, the voter circles the list, then the candidates. We believe this is the simplest way," he said.

He added that colleagues who are against the open ballots "are scaring people that the system is complicated and that they won't get used to it," and that their ballot has one sheet.

He added that they saw that the DPS proposal "has a flaw, because it only includes affirmative action for women who cross the threshold."

"We are facing elections for the European Parliament, which will certainly be with open lists. As a country aspiring to join the EU, we cannot escape from open lists. We expect all clubs to make their statements. There is no electoral reform without open lists," said Mikić.

When asked by journalists whether there was a possibility that their and DPS's models could be united into one, Mikić replied that the ruling parties cannot escape this, but also that certain ruling parties do not want to vote for the DPS proposal just because it was proposed by the former ruling party.

"We had to propose our model because it has fundamental differences compared to DPS's."

He also said that they have no problem sitting down with all their colleagues, withdrawing their law and proposing a joint solution.

He said that colleagues from Albanian parties have a different view of what affirmative action should look like.

Mikić pointed out that these parties want a Kosovo model with guaranteed seats, and that the GP URA proposal stems from the current law.