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News from the Field: Strengthening the capacities of the new permanent State Election Commission in the Republic of Croatia

For the first time, the elections of the Sabor, the Croatian Parliament, on 25 November 2007 have been conducted by a permanent and professional electoral body.

The State Election Commission of the Republic of Croatia (SEC) started its work as a permanent body on 9 March 2007. Prior to this reform enacted under Law on the SEC of 31 march 2006, Croatia was one of the rare European states appointing temporary, ad hoc, members to a central election commission before each election. The new permanent State Election Commission consists of six members appointed for eight years and three judges of the Supreme Court of the Republic Croatia.

In support of this reform, UNDEF is funding a joint effort of SEC and UNDP to strengthen the capacity of the new permanent election body with the goal of ensuring a professional and impartial electoral policy in Croatia.

This one year initiative is aiming at:

• Enhancing the educational and training programmes of the members of the election bodies;


• Advancing the SEC's analytical capacity to trace electoral trends, enhance electoral processes and to contribute effectively to electoral legislation.

Since the beginning of the project in April 2007, the SEC members have been given opportunities to improve their knowledge in election policy and electoral management through a seminar organized domestically and a study visit to institutions of the Council of Europe dealing with electoral matters.

In turn, the SEC has conducted training activities at the local level, for the members of the Constituency Election Commissions established in each of the ten geographical electoral constituencies and for the members of the Municipal and City Election Commissions. Furthermore, it has provided manuals on electoral procedures to voting committees.

The interactive seminar for the members of the SEC
The first interactive seminar for the newly created State Election Commission took place in Plitvice, Croatia, from 28 to 29 June 2007. The main goal was to expose the new members of the SEC to the latest studies in the fields of election policy and electoral management.

The seminar featured both international and domestic lecturers. The international lecturers came from the State Election Commissions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the Republic of Hungary and of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The domestic lecturers included Croatian experts experienced in conducting elections, officials from the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, officials from the Central State Administrative Office in charge of the voters’ register, representatives from APIS, an IT Company providing a technical electoral assistance and from GONG, a Croatian NGO dealing with elections, as well as senior academics from Zagreb University.

The Study visit of the members of the SEC to the Council of Europe
The study visit took place in Strasbourg, France, from 17 to 21 September 2007. For the members of the newly formed permanent Croatian Election Commission this was the first visit to a international institutions dealing with electoral matters. Meetings aiming at exchanges of knowledge and experiences were organized with representatives of the institutions of the Council of Europe acting in the electoral field, such as:

• The Elections and Referendums Division of the secretariat of the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters,


• the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities which contributes to promote good local and regional governance, and
  • The Parliamentary Assembly.

Moreover, the SEC’s members have participated in:

• The conference prepared by the Association of Central and Eastern European Election officials (ACEEEO) on the issue of the “Professional Education of Electoral Actors” and


• The conference organized by the Council of Europe in the framework of the 4th European Conference of Electoral Management Bodies on the issue of complaints and appeals procedures fighting against electoral fraud.

Training sessions for election bodies
The State Election Commission and UNDP have organized trainings sessions for members of the Constituency Election Commissions, the Town and Municipal Electoral Commissions and for the representatives of Diplomatic Missions as well as Consular Offices of Croatia. The total number of participants was approximately 580 for the five training sessions held in Zagreb (on 10, 12 and 13 November 2007), in Osijek (on 15 November 2007) and in Split (on 17 November 2007). Materials designed, by UNDP and the SEC, for the training sessions have proven very helpful and participants will use the same materials to train the members of voting committees.

Moreover, the State Election Commission has developed and updated manuals intended to help the voting committees to perform their tasks in an efficient and professional manner in the context of the parliamentarian elections. Information such as the specific introduction to the elections for the representatives of the Croatian Sabor, a glossary of electoral procedures and some examples and check lists to conduct elections have been included in the handbooks delivered to voting committees.

The remaining activities of the project will focus on reinforcing the SEC’s capacity to play a vital role in the Croatian policy making process. To this end, the SEC will develop an on-line database gathering information on the election system within the country as well as abroad and conducting analysis and studies of relevant electoral issues. Furthermore, an expert discussion on the reform of the electoral procedures will be initiated and two roundtables will be organized on topics related to the above mentioned analysis with the overall objective to launch a systematic cooperation between the SEC, national stakeholders and representatives of international organisations.