The State Electoral Comission (DIP) receives complaints from individual citizens whose identity card has expired and who complain that they are not on the voters' list.

The DIP reminds that it issued a warning before the election explaining what citizens must do if they arrive at the polling station and realise that their ID is not valid. The DIP says that this also applies to citizens who have not collected their ID on time.

Citizens who do not have a valid ID card and are not listed in the extracts from the electoral roll that were distributed to all polling stations for the elections to the Croatian Parliament on Wednesday can vote with a so-called blue certificate, according to the Ministry of Justice and Administration of the Republic of Croatia.

The blue certificates will be issued on election day by the competent administrative authorities in the counties and the city of Zagreb.

“The system cannot recognise you”

The Ministry of Justice and Public Administration has published a list of the administrative authorities responsible for issuing the certificates in the counties and in the City of Zagreb on its website.

“I must urge our citizens to remain calm. The DIP has called for checking the status of the identity card by 6 April. Those who do not have a valid ID card can go vote and go to the nearest county office, where they will receive a blue certificate that will allow them to vote. There were also cases where citizens had a valid identity card but were not registered on the electoral roll. When citizens had to have a new ID card made after the Covid crisis, they received a white certificate stating that an application for an ID card had been made, but after being asked to pick it up by text message, they did not pick it up for two or three months.

These people were in the same situation as those who do not have a valid ID card. For them, the request is to be patient and collect the blue certificate so that they can fulfil their obligation by 19:00. The system cannot recognise you from this document. Citizens should have physically picked up their ID,” explained Josip Salapic, Vice President of the State Electoral Commission.

The vice-president of the DIP, Damir Kontrec, told Croatian Radio that 1,600 voters with expired ID cards were able to exercise their right to vote thanks to the so-called blue certificate.