(Washington, D.C., July 22, 2005). This past week, Ed Andrus, President of the National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA), delivered a letter to Neven Jurica, Croatia’s Ambassador to the United States, in which he advised the Ambassador that the NFCA supported efforts to introduce absentee balloting to allow Croatian citizens living abroad to participate in Croatian elections.

Mr. Andrus noted that at the NFCA’s recent Annual Assembly in June a number of delegates stated that they believed that the Croatian-American "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."

Mr. Andrus wrote that Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader’s recent proposal to institute absentee balloting "must be given serious consideration." Mr. Andrus pointed out that despite the large numbers of Croatians living in the United States, less than 2,000 Croatians in the United States voted in recent elections. Mr. Andrus attributed this to the current voting system in place outside of Croatia which requires Croatian citizens to travel to a handful of polling stations in the US. Mr. Andrus wrote that "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."

Mr. Andrus noted in his letter that a first step in dealing with the issue was to raise "awareness of the absentee ballot issue within the Croatian Government, media, and intellectual circles." The NFCA is hopeful that it can assist in this effort by promoting assistance from American electoral officials and NGOs since the institution of absentee balloting has been around in the US for a long period of time.

In this regard, while not noted in the letter to Ambassador Jurica, Mr. Andrus separately stated that there is an apparent lack of appreciation for voting rights among some circles in Croatia. "I and my colleagues in the NFCA have often heard critics of Diaspora voting note that Croatians living abroad should not have the right to vote since they do not pay taxes in Croatia. I would note that in the United States it was long ago recognized when poll taxes in some of our southern states were declared illegal that voting is a fundamental right of citizenship and has nothing to do with paying taxes."

Mr. Andrus’ letter to Ambassador Jurica also suggested that the Croatian government consider reforms to the present allocation of Diaspora representatives in the Croatian Sabor or Parliament. The letter noted that "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."

The NFCA is a national umbrella organization of Croatian-American groups which collectively have approximately 130,000 members.

For more information, please call Joe Foley, Government Relations Director, at 301-294-0937 or Erik Milman, the NFCA's Director of Development, at the NFCA’s headquarters in Washington at 202-331-2830 or by email at NFCAhdq@aol.com.