An attempt by the ruling coalition parties to come up with a joint proposal for new rules in parliamentary elections has definitely fallen through so the senior partner in the coalition, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), on Wednesday sent its own bill of amendments to the law on parliamentary elections.
“SDP has sent into procedure a final bill of amendments to the law on the election of members of parliament. We believe that it is our obligation to do this before the deadline for the amendments of the election bill,” SDP MP and president of the parliamentary committee for the constitution Pedja Grbin told Hina on Wednesday.
After attempts to reach a consensus on the election law amendments fell through, SDP announced that it would go ahead with its own proposal. Grbin on Monday still believed that coalition partners would in the end come to an agreement when he said that there were only a “few minor details” to iron out concerning preferential votes.
On Wednesday Grbin claimed that the proposal had reached a “high level of agreement” and expected the other coalition partners to support the bill.
He would not specify what remained contentious but unofficial reports indicate that the Croatian People’s Party (HNS) objected to the idea of a deputy candidate for preferentially elected MPs who vacates their seat in parliament for whatever reason.