Colored Voting

[Ivo Skoric]

Serbia's elections failed. Croatian are under way. After the Florida 
debacle in year 2000, election processes anywhere in the world seem 
to be under heightened scrutiny. Croatia's ballots appear in myriad 
different colors, so one is prompted to ask what do the colors 
represent.

My first take would it be that each color is for a different 
party/candidate (there are 18 of them, I believe). But that is not 
so. The colors do not identify the candidates: the colors are there 
to identify the voters.

The colors are assigned by the ethnicity and residence. Croats 
residing in Croatia got white ballots. Croats living abroad got 
yellow. Serbs in Croatia got pink. And so on.

I understand the desire to record the statistics of how people voted 
according to their ethnicity and residence. But to issue colored 
ballots according to the ethnicity and residence seems to me as an 
outright discriminatory idea and bad governance.

Three big boooos for Racan for that one.

ivo

---------------------------------------------------------
Ivo Skoric
19 Baxter Street
Rutland VT 05701
802.775.7257
ivo at balkansnet.org
balkansnet.org