No Referendum on NATO

Alert

17 April 2008

The non-governmental organizations failed in their intent to collect 450,000 signatures for the petition to call for referendum on Croatian membership in NATO. After two weeks of petition signing, they managed to collect slightly over 150,000 signatures.

Organizers complain of limited funds, the short legal deadlines for collection of signatures and unrealistically high number of signatures they needed to collect.

Analysts add that the campaign was not well prepared and organized, and lacked proper support by media and prominent public personalities and celebrities.

Aleksandar Hatzivelkos, the Spokesperson of the campaign, says that they are satisfied with the response of the citizens and noted a number of unexpected problems they had to face, like the fact that the whole campaign acquired the air of anti-NATO campaign, as well as the provisions in the La on Referendum that requires for the persons who want to sign to provide their personal identification number, which has been recently declared confidential by the Law on Protection of Privacy and Personal Data.

The Organization Committee didn`t have official and systemic support by any political party, although prominent political figures, like SDP President Zoran Milanović, did sign the petition.

The Committee will present the collected signatures to the Croatian Sabor (the parliament) and intends to start a debate for necessary changes in the Law on Referendum, which has proved restrictive for civic initiatives.

The campaign should also result in an initiative to update the Voter Registry.

- The number of registered voters is unrealistic, which is not the problem for just this campaign, but is a problem for the society in general, comments Hatzivelkos.