On Thursday, the SDP presidency considered the draft of the new party statute, which would abolish voting according to the 'one member - one vote' model and return it to the delegate system, which would elect all party bodies, while the party president would still be elected by all SDP members.
The party presidency, members of the Main Committee, and the leadership of local organizations would be re-elected under the delegate system.
'One member - one vote' was introduced by the SDP 18 years ago when Zoran Milanović was at the head of the party, with the intention of further democratizing the party. However, in the last few years, it has been shown that this model does not represent a democratic breakthrough, as it was originally intended, but it turned out to be a generator of bad interpersonal relations, intra-party conflicts, divisions and quarrels of clans in the party.
Local elections in SDP until spring
Under the new electoral system, after the new Statute is confirmed by the Main Board and the Party Convention, leadership will be elected in the four largest party organizations, which were dissolved after the local elections, in Zagreb due to dysfunction, and in Split, Rijeka and Osijek due to poor election results in the local elections in May.
The SDP expects the Convention to be held probably in early December, and elections in local organizations to be held by spring.
"On paper, the 'one member - one vote' principle seemed good to me and a great model, but now, with hindsight, it's a big disappointment. I thought it was the most democratic model there is, but then I realized that it was being manipulated. Theoretically, it could happen that an HDZ member joins the SDP and determines who will be a member of the Main Board, Presidency or party president," said a member of the presidency who wished to remain anonymous.
He adds that several social democratic parties in the world also reached for this model, they got into it and then realized that it destroyed their party.
He emphasizes that we need to return to the delegate system because to be a delegate you need to be known in the party, someone needs to propose you, and that also assumes that you have some results behind you, and not that party bodies are elected by someone who joined the SDP yesterday. He also explains that any conflicts that existed in the party were only between delegates, and now, he notes, they have been passed on to the last member, who were previously unburdened by discussions about who is a better and who is a worse candidate for a position. The 'one member - one vote' model, he warns, has a very bad effect on intra-party cohesion.
The new Statute also introduces electronic voting and reduces the number of members of the Presidency.
The new Statute also introduces electronic voting in intra-party elections. The number of members of the Presidency is also reduced from 18 to 13, while the SDP will in future have two vice-presidents of the party instead of four.
Also, the holding of individual party positions would be limited to a maximum of three terms.
The discussion also included requests to explicitly state in the Statute that the SDP is an anti-fascist party, and to include quotas, or the zip model, in the compilation of electoral lists in the Statute. Although this is not a statutory provision, the SDP respected it because, they say, it is understood because it is in line with the values they stand for, and thus today they have 19 female and 18 male representatives in the Parliament.
The head of the Statute Drafting Committee and SDP Secretary General Marko Krička explained after the session that the proposal to return to delegate voting is supported by the majority of Presidency members, but, given the objections raised in the debate, another seven days have been given to submit amendments to the Statute proposal.
After the Presidency considers the amendments, there will be two to three weeks of public discussion among the membership in the field.
"Those who are against the model of 'one member - one vote' in the Presidency are in the minority, but I believe that the proposed solution will pass on the ground because the cross-section of the members of the Presidency is to some extent in some positions and the cross-section of the membership, but we certainly respect the remarks made and we will discuss them again," he said. He announced that this will be followed by the Main Committee, which will determine the final proposal for the Convention, where it will make a definitive decision on the Statute, followed by elections in local organizations according to the new rules.
Photo: HINA/Dario Grzelj
