President Milanović Signs Law on Electoral Districts within Constitutional Deadline pursuant to Article 89 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović signed the new Law on Electoral Districts within the Constitutional deadline, i.e. within eight days from the date it was enacted, as stipulated by Article 89, paragraph 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia: “Laws shall be promulgated by the President of the Republic within eight days from the date of their enactment by the Croatian Parliament”. The Law on Electoral Districts was enacted by the Croatian Parliament on 28 September, and the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović signed it on 3 October, in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and abiding by the constitutional deadline.

The real question is why was the new Law on Electoral Districts not enacted until 28 September and why did the parliamentary majority specify 1 October as the date the law comes into force? Besides not taking into account the indicative time frame for enacting the new law set by the Constitutional Court, the ruling majority tried to commit a procedural fraud by specifying 1 October as the date when the law comes into force, not taking into account the constitutional deadline within which the President of the Republic promulgates the enacted laws.

The President of the Republic is not a clerk who will work at the Government’s whim in order to rectify the political and procedural sloppiness of the ruling majority in the Croatian Parliament. As in this case, the President of the Republic will in the future take into account only and exclusively that the letter and spirit of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia is abided by, regardless of the political and procedural encroachments of the (ruling) HDZ and its coalition partners in the Croatian Parliament.