The government has initiated the procedure for verifying the number and authenticity of voter signatures from the request for a referendum by the Civil Initiative ‘In the Name of the Family’.
Let us remind you that this is a request for a referendum on amending the Constitution with the question: ‘Are you in favor of including a provision in the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia stating that marriage is a life community of a woman and a man?’
The Ministry of Public Administration and the State Bureau of Statistics are responsible for verifying 750,000 signatures. Although the signatures will be verified using a random sample, the government has not set any deadlines. However, judging by the past performance of these two institutions, results should not be expected anytime soon.
Statisticians, in fact, have not yet processed all the data from the population census conducted in April 2011. The Ministry of Public Administration is even ‘faster’ – since mid-2009, they have been counting how many people work in public administration. Neither Mlakar nor his successor Arsen Bauk has managed to count them. Therefore, assigning the verification of signatures to the two slowest state institutions carries political weight.
