President Ivo Josipovic said on Wednesday the election process was his job under the constitution and that elections were called by the president of the republic.
The president determines the election date and not the government, the ruling coalition or anyone on the political scene, he said in response to the request from the press for a comment on Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's statement yesterday that he should not interfere in elections.
"The constitution is reading material that anyone holding public office should have in their hands more often," Josipovic said, adding the ruling coalition could limit this presidential power to a degree by deciding whether the four-year term of office would end sooner.
"The president of the republic calls elections and determines the election date so that the election is held within 60 days at the latest from the end of the term or the dissolution of parliament."
Josipovic said that in theory, he could call the election for the first day after the end of the current parliament's term, which is January 12, 2012.
He stressed that the date for calling elections is very important for every state and that he would hold consultations with the ruling group and the opposition, regardless of whether the election was held after or before the expiry of the current parliament's term, as elections "are an event of national importance and must have all elements of democracy."
"Nobody has the monopoly on elections," stressed Josipovic.
Kosor said yesterday she would reveal the date of the forthcoming parliamentary election in the coming days and that it would not be good if the president became involved in election campaigning in any way. She was responding to Josipovic's statement that he expected the election date to be determined as a matter of political responsibility.
Asked until when he would wait for Kosor's decision on the election date, Josipovic said he could not force either the PM or the government.
He added that his statement to which Kosor responded yesterday was not a way of forcing her to say the election date but that he was guided by a democratic value - that a promise made to citizens must be kept. He recalled that Kosor publicly promised several times that she would say when the election would be held and that it would be held this year.
He reiterated that "when the government makes the decision, when the promise to citizens is kept," determining the election date was in his hands.
