FREEDOM TO MONITOR

The election commitments of OSCE member states were enumerated in the concluding document of the organization's 1990 Copenhagen meeting on the human dimension. According to article 8 of the document:

The participating States consider that the presence of observers, both foreign and domestic, can enhance the electoral process in States in which elections are taking place. They therefore may invite observers from any other CSCE [now OSCE] participating States and any appropriate privateinstitutions and organizations that may wish to do so to observe the course of their national election proceedings, to the extent permitted by law.47

Following the practice of OSCE states, Croatia invites international observers to observe its national elections. Domestic monitoring in national elections to date has been limited to observers from political parties. In the 1997 elections, where domestic monitoring was not regulated by the election law, the National Election Commission refused GONG's request to monitor the elections. During 1998, GONG requested permission to monitor a series of local elections and was granted permission by the local election commission in Osijek to monitor local elections there. Local authorities refused a subsequent request to monitor the local elections in Dubrovnik. In October 1998, GONG, together with the Croatian Helsinki Committee, took their complaint to the Constitutional Court, which upheld their right to monitor local elections.

Prior to the election law, GONG officials expressed concern that the timetable for submission of lists of monitors and the subsequent issuance of accreditation by the National Election Commission would not be included in the law, leaving it to the discretion of the commission, which might issue accreditations too late for distribution to observers. Despite their fears, article 107 of the adopted law indicates that lists of monitors have to be given to the National Election Commission eight days in advance and that accreditation will be delivered by the commission at least three days in advance of the elections. Article 107 also states that "the National Election Commission shall permit the monitoring of electoral procedure to all organizations, which are legally registered as organizations that work in the field of independent monitoring of electoral procedure and/or promotion of human or civil rights" provided that they "request permission from the National Election Commission."48 Following the adoption of the law, GONG representatives told Human Rights Watch that they did not expect to have problems monitoring the elections, although they remained concerned that the possible limits on the number of observers in each polling place might prevent them from gaining access to all polling places.49