Croatian General Elections 2020 – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Australian Croatian Voters Have Lustrated From Their Lives Croatian Communists and Former Communists!

Candidates for Croatian General Elections
4th and 5th July 2020 on “Independent List Zeljko Glasnovic
From left front row! Marko Juric, Zeljko Glasnovic, Ina Vukic, Mate Knezovic Back row from left: Milena Matic, Tomislav Sunic, Marina Sunić-Zakman, Elizabeta Mađarevi, Srecko Telar Candidates not on photo: Marko Perkovic, Martina Ćurić, Franjo Miroslav Perkovic,
Marina Sabljic, Kresimir Tabak,

Only about 18 months ago I wrote that lustration in Croatia starts in Australia. Yesterday’s General Elections for Croatian Parliament results have proved that is the case.

Knowing in advance that candidates running for Croatian Parliament from the diaspora have no chance of getting in due to discrimination built into the Electoral law I am pleased to say that an overwhelming victory by our Independent list Zeljko Glasnovic in every polling booth in Australia where I live was achieved, with the highest percentage of votes being in Sydney (states of NSW and Queensland) 77% and Melbourne (States of Victoria and South Australia) 63% Canberra 51%…

The sadly realistic point about running as a candidate at elections for the Croatian Parliament from the Croatian diaspora has never been about possibility of winning because winning, due to brutal discrimination within the Electoral legislation, which makes winning a parliamentary seat an impossible outcome! The point about running as a candidate at elections for the Croatian Parliament from the Croatian diaspora is about fighting for justice and fighting against discrimination and collecting evidence of that abominable discrimination against people (the Diaspora) who were crucial in the fight for independence from communist Yugoslavia. Croatian HDZ and SDP governments since year 2000 have ensured that they place the Croatian diaspora within the same Electorate (XI) as Bosnia and Herzegovina and that they reduce the number of seats from 12 to 3! Furthermore, more than 90% of Croatian eligible voters in the diaspora physically cannot reach a polling booth due to distance and prohibitive personal costs for travel to the booth. Bosnia and Herzegovina has thousands upon thousands more voters who are able to access polling places on election day than the Diaspora. In the Diaspora in 2010 the Croatian government has done away with accessible voting booths that used to exist within Croatian clubs etc in the diaspora and limited the polling booths to Croatian Consulates and Embassies!

Talk about passive aggression against own people! This is a painful example!

This is purposeful discrimination against citizens by a government and it cannot be ignored nor unattended. This is a purposeful action of former communists and their followers who want corruption, nepotism and citizen-unfriendly laws to continue, to thrive just as they did in former communist Yugoslavia. I have felt it on my own back as a candidate from Australia but Australian Croats have done me proud, have done retired General Zeljko Glasnovic proud. Overwhelming majority of voters in Australia – true fighters for democracy and freedom and lasting well-being of all Croats. Even if official Croatia has failed miserably at lustration, the General Elections’ results in Australia (and I am quite confident it will be the same for rest of the Croatian diaspora, e.g. USA, Canada, South America…) overwhelmingly demonstrate that they themselves have managed to implement lustration in their local communities. They have managed to decimate HDZ/Croatian Democratic Union and SDP/Social Democratic Party to smithereens!

This should be a glorious wake-up call for democracy-loving Croatians of today whose voices have been silenced by discrimination and lies!

My personal gratitude to all Croatians in Australia who have been able to reach a polling booth and who voted, in droves, voted for the Independent list Zeljko Glasnovic on which list I myself stood as a candidate! The fight for truth and justice continues! Ina Vukic

Canadian Croatians –Asserting Their Voting Rights

Folklore Ansambl “Hrvatsko Kolo” in Mississauga, Ontario
had the honour to be blessed by Archbishop Petar Rajić
in March 2019
Photo: Facebook

The Canadian paralegal specialising in International Relations (who has also worked at The Hague International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia/ICTY), also a citizen of Croatia living in Canada, Ana Katalinic, B.A., has during the past day published her letter to her Member of Parliament of Canada seeking urgent clarification as to why Croatian citizens living in Canada have been prohibited from voting on the 4^th and 5^th of July 2020 at the Croatian Embassy in Ottawa and Consulate in Mississauga as part of the Croatian General Elections for Croatian Parliament.

The news or notice published 5^th June 2020 on the Croatian Embassy website, notifying Croatian citizens living in Canada “that in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding measures implemented by Canadian authorities, due to public health reasons the Canadian government has informed that it is unable to issue permission for establishing polling stations for the upcoming Croatian parliamentary elections at the Croatian Embassy in Ottawa or the Consulate General in Mississauga…”, has stirred a great deal of disappointment and anger within the Canadian-Croatian community. This particularly so because it is a fact that Croatian elections in the diaspora are usually an orderly affair where a limited number of voters are usually permitted to enter the polling booth within Embassy or Consular premises while the others wait outside. Perfectly compliant with any general population measures at times of crisis such as Covid-19.

Croatian Embassy in Ottawa website
Photo: Screenshot

I DO TRUST THAT MANY CANADIAN-CROATIANS holding the Croatian citizenship will during this coming week write to their Canadian Member of Parliament, to the Prime Minister, to the Opposition MP’s etc seeking an explanation of why they cannot exercise their voting rights for Croatian elections and perhaps succeed in the polling booths being open for voting on 4^th and 5^th July!

Ana Katalinic wrote on 7 June 2020 a public post and here it is:

“Friends have been asking what I wrote to my MP regarding the barrier for dual Canadian/Croatian citizens to vote in the upcoming Croatian elections. Respectfully, here it is.

* * *

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to you with an urgent request for clarification.

Members of Croatia’s diaspora with dual citizenship have the opportunity on July 5th to participate in Croatia’s parliamentary elections and cast their vote. For many of us, I cannot emphasize the importance of exercising this democratic right.

These voters in Canada normally either go to the Croatian Consulate in Mississauga or the Croatian Embassy in Ottawa, some travelling great distances to exercise this privilege and right.

We learn now, from the Croatian Embassy, that Canadian federal authorities won’t allow polling stations to be set up on July 5 at these locations due to COVID restrictions.

I am bewildered that, in this time of ambiguous COVID fear, Canadians are allowed to participate in various public protests and demonstrations, shop in big box stores, yet are denied a democratic right to cast a ballot in an organized manner at an Embassy or Consulate.

A solution can be found. The problem is, no one has tried.

With the highest respect, I would be grateful if you would investigate these questions: Is the Canadian government denying us access to the Consulate or Embassy to cast our ballots on the basis of an administrative procedure? What does that rule state exactly? Was this a rule put in place at the height of the COVID crisis? Is this decision now made by the Embassy itself? Why can’t we find an alternate solution?

I hope you will reply soonest. Thank you and please accept my best regards …”

If other Canadian-Croatians write such a letter to their Canadian MP, or similar one – urgently – then there is a real possibility of Canadian Government permitting their citizens who also have Croatian citizenship to exercise their citizenship rights by allowing Croatian diplomatic-consular missions to open polling booths on the relevant days.

So, get to it dear Croatians in Canada! Write that letter today, tomorrow – urgently! Ina Vukic