By: Dr Metod Berlec
In the spring of 1990, after 52 years (last in 1938 in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Slovenians finally had multi-party elections again. The majority in the then assembly was won by the Democratic Opposition of Slovenia (DEMOS), which consisted of the Slovenian Democratic Union, Social Democratic Party of Slovenia, Slovenian Christian Democrats, Slovenian Peasant Union – People’s Party, Greens of Slovenia, and Slovenian Craftsmen’s Party – Liberal Party. Milan Kučan, the last leader of the Communist Party of Slovenia, became the president of the presidency, defeating DEMOS leader Jože Pučnik in the second round. The inaugural session of the first democratically elected assembly took place in mid-May. France Bučar was elected as the president. On May 16th, 1990, DEMOS government under the leadership of Christian Democrat Lojze Peterle was confirmed in the assembly. However, there was a bitter taste left, as the president of the presidency became the last party chief, indicating that there would be no radical political change in Slovenia. Furthermore, there was suspicion, which still exists today, whether Kučan truly defeated Pučnik, as the democratic opposition at that time could not fully ensure that there were no frauds and manipulations in the vote count, especially in the election of the president of the presidency of the Republic of Slovenia.
In recent years, the question of whether the elections in our country are truly democratic and fair has been increasingly raised in Slovenia. Perhaps there are electoral frauds or manipulations in the computer programme that tallies the votes, allocates mandates, and so on. This can be particularly problematic for smaller parties and lists participating in the elections. They do not have representation and/or representatives or supervisors in the electoral boards and commissions, so they cannot directly oversee either the conduct of the elections or the entry of data into the computer system in the district electoral commissions. Representatives of parliamentary parties, who have representation in the electoral boards and commissions, usually monitor, verify, and tally mainly their own results, while practically no one directly verifies the results of smaller parties and lists. Due to the large number of votes cast in every election for parties and lists that do not enter the National Assembly or the European Parliament and receive or exceed 100,000 votes, and no one physically verifies them, there is a theoretical possibility of manipulations in terms of computer adding or subtracting votes for parties that are just below or just above the threshold for election. In the last parliamentary elections, somewhat surprisingly, the alliance of five Slovenian centre-right parties, which ran under the common name Let’s Connect Slovenia, remained outside the parliament. On the other hand, the Levica just barely crossed the electoral threshold. It goes without saying that the balance of power in the National Assembly would be quite different and much healthier for the democratic development of Slovenian society if the Let’s Connect Slovenia alliance were in parliament instead of the extremist Levica. Therefore, the “Resolution on the conditions for ensuring fair and democratic elections in the Republic of Slovenia”, which was recently adopted at the session of the SDS Council, is timely.
THOSE IN POWER MUST BE REQUIRED TO ENSURE THAT EUROPEAN AND FUTURE NATIONAL ELECTIONS ARE TRULY FREE, DEMOCRATIC, AND FAIR.
SDS therefore demands from the State Electoral Commission (SEC) before the European elections to “re-establish polling stations in places where they have been abolished since 2011”, that the SEC “orders the district electoral commissions to conduct real-time vote counting at preliminary voting and to prepare a partial report for each day of preliminary voting separately. It may also be specified that the contents of the partial report are not published”. That the SEC “immediately publicly discloses information about the authorship or ownership of the computer programme used for recording and tallying votes or results from individual polling stations and for calculating mandates, as well as the names of responsible persons for maintaining and administering the programme”, and that “the State Electoral Commission enables independent external audit of the computer programme used for recording and tallying votes or results from individual polling stations and for calculating mandates”.
In short, it is necessary to demand from the responsible parties that the upcoming European elections and future national elections in the Republic of Slovenia are truly free, democratic, and fair. The fact is that the key and decisive role in the State Electoral Commission is played by individuals who are ideologically more inclined to the ruling transitional left. Therefore, caution and urgently required transparency are all the more necessary. Otherwise, we may go down the path of Venezuela towards an undemocratic, failed state. Into poverty…