Vesna Fabijancic-Krizanic, Vice-President of the State Electoral Commission (DIP), was a live guest in the N1 studio. She spoke to Anka Bilic-Keserovic about how many presidential candidates have submitted their signatures and what the next steps are.

“Tomorrow (Tuesday) at midnight is the last day to submit signatures. I want to emphasise that the candidates have scheduled their submissions at our suggestion. Since there are currently six candidates, the submissions are scheduled every two hours. A message to the potential candidates is that they will no longer be able to choose a filing time. We will accept every submission, but they will have to wait a long time,” explained the DIP Vice President.

About three hours to verify 10,000 signatures

She added that all signatures are checked immediately. “Experience has shown that it takes about three hours to check these 10,000 signatures. “The timetable for Tuesday’s submissions is already known. Those who have not announced their submissions will have to wait longer,” she said.

Regarding the next steps, Fabijancic-Krizanic explained that after 10,100 signatures, the required number, have been counted, further verification will stop “regardless of the remaining number.”

She emphasised that a signature is invalid in three cases: if the personal identification number (OIB) is incorrect, if the data has been changed and if the OIB does not match the first and last name.

“Each candidate appoints a person to take part in and monitor the verification process. So far, there have been no problems because it is clear why a signature is invalid if it is,” she explained.

8–15% of signatures are usually invalid

“It would certainly be good if each candidate had more than 10,100 signatures,” she said. The reason for this is the fact that 8–15% of signatures are usually invalid.

Fabijancic-Krizanic said that the problem of duplicate signatures has been exaggerated in public and has shown that “some candidates have more invalid OIBs than duplicate signatures.”

When asked about the difference between this unofficial election period and the official one, which begins after 10 December, the DiP Vice-President explained that there is basically none.

Election silence

The election silence will be observed on 28 December and until 7 p.m. on 29 December, when the polling stations close.

“There must be no photos, interviews, advertising for programmes or appeals to voters… The silence speaks for itself,” she said, urging candidates to refrain from self-promotion.

Asked when we will know the names of the candidates who make it to the second round, she replied: “We will announce the results as early as 29 December at 8pm. They will not be representative figures, but given the simplicity of the ballot papers, I believe we will have relevant results by 10pm,” said the vice president of the State Electoral Commission.