Hakom - Croatian Post and Electronic Communications Agency

ZAGREB, May 22, 2017 - Over the past weekend, during the pre-election and election silence for the local elections HAKOM has reported the smallest number of unsolicited political SMS texts ever. There were only 10 different numbers from which different political messages were sent, and later reported by the citizens to (State Electoral Commission) or HAKOM. Following the citizens’ reports, the numbers were blocked by the operator in order to protect the public from further disturbances. This is the first election where the number of citizens' reports regarding violations of the pre-election or election silence as well as the Electronic Communications Act due to the unsolicited SMS texts was almost negligible.  It is obvious that the citizens’ cooperation with HAKOM, State Electoral Commission and operators rendered good results and obviously reduced this kind of behaviour we are faced with during the elections.

All registered numbers will be further examined and verified, and the identified senders will be inspected for violations of the Electronic Communications Act. Due to the fact that it is not within HAKOM’s jurisdiction, information on the owners-users of the numbers will be forwarded to SEC as sending of such texts is considered a violation of silence.

The second round of the local elections is expected in two weeks, and HAKOM invites the citizens to continue reporting any SMS or other form of unsolicited electronic communications that can be considered as a  form of inadequate, political or economic form of SMS.