The parliamentary opposition on Wednesday attacked the new Electoral Constituencies Bill as illogical and tailored to the wishes of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), stressing that the bill would not pass the test of constitutionality.

Opposition MPs said that in drafting the bill the recommendations of the Venice Commission, the Constitutional Court and experts were not respected, and that the bill is based on the population census that revealed nearly half a million surplus voters.

Davorko Vidovic (Social Democrats) said that the election system should be completely changed because the division of the country into 10 constituencies with 14 legislators is not acceptable.

Pedja Grbin (Social Democratic Party) said ironically that the bill is as good as Andrej Plenkovic is a good prime minister. He noted that under the proposed bill seven counties would be split between constituencies as opposed to four under the old law. In Constituency 5, there are 21 per cent more voters than adults and one in five voters there do not exist, he added.

Sandra Bencic (Mozemo!) described the bill as “divide and rule”, stressing that there is not a single constituency that does not split at least one county. Referring to the census, she said that there will be half a million ballots more than there are voters in Croatia.

Božo Petrov (Most) said that the bill would fail the test of constitutionality “if the Constitutional Court has any honour left.” He also recalled that the census revealed half a million surplus voters. “These people who do not exist will vote, and the dead will vote too,” his party colleague, Miro Bulj, added.

Marijan Pavlicek (Sovereignists) described the bill as “the height of arrogance on the HDZ’s part”, resenting the fact that the bill does not provide for postal voting. “What are you afraid of?” he asked the ruling coalition.

Davor Dretar (DP party) said that electronic voting is not being introduced so that the ruling parties can manipulate with votes.

Dalija Oreskovic (Centre) accused the HDZ of depriving Croatia of democracy, claiming that next year’s elections would be illegitimate and largely unconstitutional.

Damir Habijan (HDZ) called on the opposition to discuss the substance of the bill rather than waste their energies on “false arguments” because “whatever the law may be, the HDZ will claim victory.” He stressed that the Constitutional Court’s recommendations were taken into account when the bill was drafted.