Original scientific paper
Contemporary Croatian Electoral Engineering as a Sophisticated Form of Electoral Manipulation
Robert Podolnjak
; Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In numerous constitutional and political analyses electoral engineering is seen as a form of constitutional engineering, despite the fact that electoral systems are not included in the majority of modern constitutional texts and that electoral engineering, as a rule, has negative connotations, and could be, as was the case in Croatia recently, declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
Electoral engineering as a sophisticated form of electoral manipulation has been present in Croatia in various shapes in the last 20 years, and recently it was evident in attempted or implemented changes of electoral law concerning the election of the representatives of the Croatian diaspora, the representatives of the largest national minority and the redrawing of the boundaries of electoral districts.
The author’s recommendation for preventing electoral engineering is that it should be done through constitutionalisation of the electoral system, i.e. by inserting the basic principles of the electoral system in the Constitution.
Keywords
electoral engineering; electoral system; election of representatives in the Croatian Parliament; the Constitutional Court
Hrčak ID:
103810
URI
Publication date:
27.2.2013.
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