ON THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM FOR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE BODIES

Postojeći izborni sustav za lokalna predstavnička tijela (županijske skupštine, Gradsku skupštinu Grada Zagreba, gradska vijeća i općinska vijeća), uveden 1992. godine, poznat je pod nazivom paralelni ili mješoviti razmjerno-većinski izborni sustav. U radu se razmatra potreba njegove zamjene uvođenjem dvaju novih, različitih izbornih sustava, ovisno o veličini i tip u lokalnih teritorijalnih jedinica. Za predstavnička tijela županija te velikih i - ovisno o odluci zakonodavca - većih gradova predlaže se razmjerni personalizirani mješoviti izborni sustav (R -PM ). Za općine i ovisno o odluci zakonodavca - manje gradove predlaže se uvođenje razmjernog izbornog sustava s otvorenim kandidacijskim listam a (R-O list. ). Alternativno, u slučaju odluke zakonodavca o uvođenju sam o jedne vrste izbornog sustava za predstavnička tijela svih lokalnih teritorijalnih jedinica, predlaže se modificirani razmjerni personalizirani mješoviti izborni sustav s otvorenim listama u razmjernom dijelu izbora.The “parallel” or “mixed proportional-majority” electoral system has been applied in Croatia since 1992 for the election of local representative bodies, no matter whether it refers to different types of local territorial units of the same level (municipalities and towns), or different levels of local units (municipalities/ towns - counties). Among other factors, the effects of this system have influenced the development of the co-called “partisan political” local self-government in Croatia, in which local elections - whose resulted are to a great extent dependent on and connected with political events on the national level - cannot be entirely considered as an autonomous political process, originating in a particular local area. Having this in mind, a full reorientation of the development of local self- -government in Croatia towards “non-partisan”, “non-political” local administration cannot be at present considered as a possible process, since this process has to be preceded by wide, complete and full decentralization of public administration, which is a long and slow process, not even started in Croatia yet. Therefore, at the local general elections, due in June 2001, a new electoral System should be applied, which would take into account the existing circumstances, eliminate deficiencies of the parallel electoral system still in use, and to a certain extent open a possibility of gradually becoming more independent, i.e. reducing the influence of national elections over partisan political and other relations within local territorial units. Since the new electoral system should take into account the existing diversities of the present counties, towns and municipalities, it is suggested to introduce two different kinds of the proportional electoral system, depending on the representative bodies to which it is applied. For representative bodies of larger local territorial units (counties, cities and larger towns) it is proposed to apply the proportional personalized mixed electoral system (R-PM), and for representative bodies of smaller territorial units (smaller towns and municipalities) the proportional electoral system with open lists of candidates (R-O List), Alternatively, in case that a uniform electoral system for representative bodies of ail local territorial units is decided upon, the application of a modified electoral system is proposed (modifications concern the introduction of open lists of candidates into the proportional system). The effects of each of the proposed kinds of proportional electoral systems, including the results of the elections achieved by its application, are compared with the effects and the results of the elections achieved in the local elections for the Town Council of the Town of Vrbovec, held on 21 May 2000, by the application of the existing parallel electoral system, and advantages and disadvantages of each of them are explained in detail. In conclusion, it is pointed out that the proposed electoral models should stimulate experts to indicate argumented discussion on an appropriate electoral system for local representative bodies in Croatia. Evaluation of political adequacy of introducing one or another local electoral system into the country is not included in this article