The People decide - referendum initiative

Today was the first day of the referendum initiative "The People decide" which aims to achieve a more just election system in Croatia. In fifteen days, starting from 23.5 the initiative has to gather about 400 000 signatures or ten percent of all voters. If we succeed to collect ten percent of signatures, the parliament is obliged to call a referendum. The first referendum question will be about the voting system. It aims to change the Constitution in such a way that it reduces the number of representatives in Sabor which is a representative body of Croatian citizens and holds a legislative power, make number of seats taken proportionate to the number of votes (except the minority representatives), preferential voting, the people that will be elected will have the greatest number of preferential votes, as opposed to now where the party leadership decides who will represent the voters, and those are not always the individuals that people voted for. Furthermore, the initiative wants to lower the bar for getting into the parliament to 4% of the vote (now it is 5%), also the initiative wants to reduce the number of minority representatives from 8 to 6 so it will be proportional to the overall reduction of representatives.

The second question is more "controversial" because there is a possibility that it is not constitutional. Personally, I understand why some may not like it because it aims to stop minority representatives from forming a government and taking part in deciding on the budget which seems discriminatory at fist. I think this is not a problem at all because minorities don't vote just for their minority representatives, in a way they share a destiny with majority voters. Also, minority representatives often use their seats in parliament while bargaining and condition their support with manager positions in state-owned companies and other privileges (that is the problem in democracy almost everywhere, but it is even more expressed with minorities because they get far fewer votes than other representatives). Even with this change, Croatia is one of the best, if not the best country for minorities in EU - as far as representation in government goes.

The referendum comes right after the Croatian government ratified infamous "Istanbul convention" which, under the guise of protecting women, brings gender ideology (the idea that gender is fluid and a social construct) in Croatia. People that organized this referendum, people that volunteer for the initiative (including me), and all those who gave their signatures feel that the Croatian government does not reflect the will of its citizens and one of the main reasons is a bad election law.