July 15, 2005

His Excellency Neven Jurica

Ambassador to the United States

Republic of Croatia Embassy

2343 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20008-2853

Dear Mr. Ambassador,

On behalf of the National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA), we want to express our appreciation for your recent keynote address to our 12th Annual Assembly of Delegates in Omaha, Nebraska. At that assembly, fruitful discussions and decisions took place regarding the future of the NFCA and our activities in Washington, DC, for our members.

Apart from the activities related to the use of the Congressional Croatian Caucus, we considered the state of the Croatian American community in the United States. Many of our delegates noted that the community feels increasingly discouraged over Croatia's political status. Foremost among the reasons for this is that the current Croatia electoral law prevents the Croatian Diaspora from participating in Croatian elections and politics in any meaningful way.

We recently learned that Prime Minister Sanader has proposed instituting an absentee balloting system to address the question of how Croatian citizens living abroad can readily vote. We wholeheartedly believe that the Prime Minister's proposal must be given serious consideration.

The current lack of absentee balloting forces Croatian citizens in the United States to visit a handful of representative offices in only a few major cities on Election Day in order to cast their votes. As a result, recent voting tallies for Croatian citizens in the United States numbered less than two thousand and are thus largely symbolic. Rather than engendering interest in Croatian politics, the current system results in the effective disenfranchisement of Croatian citizens in the United States and around the world. Without an amendment to the electoral laws providing for absentee voting, the political under-representation of the worldwide Croatian Diaspora will remain chronic.

The first step in solving this problem is to create an awareness of the absentee ballot issue within the Croatian Government, media, and intellectual circles. We believe it would be useful to base discussions pertaining to an amendment on the United States Federal Election Commission's Voting System Standards in consultation with the United States consular representative in Zagreb, Ms Carolina Gorman. Furthermore, we could raise the attention of the NGOs in the United States who are interested in the Croatia electoral process. This would facilitate the NGOs oversight and logistical support for Croatia elections with the Diaspora.

We further suggest that the Croatian Government consider restructuring the current allocation of representatives of the Croatian Diaspora in the Sabor. The current system of consolidating the votes of Croatian citizens living in Western Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere with those living in Bosnia and Herzegovina effectively leaves those Croatian citizens living outside of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with no representation in the Sabor. The large number of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina far outweighs the potential numbers of voters in other countries. We fully support the rights of Croatian citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina to continue to vote for their own representatives to the Sabor; but if Croatia seeks to draw to itself the political, intellectual, economic, and social potential of its Diaspora living abroad, it must make provisions for representation of their interests and concerns in the Sabor as well. Independent Croatia was founded in part on the premise that it would draw together Croats from throughout the world and proportionate representation in the Sabor would help fulfill that promise.

By investing effort in this cause, the Croatian Government would demonstrate to all of its citizens in Croatia and abroad, the will to protect their civil right to vote and to facilitate their participation.

We ask you to join us in our efforts and bring this matter to the attention of the Croatian Government so that we may see the Sabor taking electoral law reform into consideration and amending it to provide for absentee balloting in the near future.

Sincerely,

Edward A. Andrus, President/NFCA

and John P. Kraljic,

Past President

Mijo Radocaj,

Past President

Miro Koletic,

Absentee Ballot Committee Chairman

cc: Marijan Gubic, Deputy Chief of Mission