Croatian Voters Spoil Ballots to Show Dissent

Some 1.6 per cent of all ballots cast in Sunday's presidential elections in Croatia were declared invalid, and many of the 28,712 spoiled papers were intended as displays of dissent.

The phenomenon of using ballot papers for political satire is not new to Croatian elections but its popularity has increased as more people have acquired cellphones with cameras enabling them to post their pictures to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Some ballots were defaced with insults aimed at the candidates, while a few were even embellished with specially-written poems.

Others added their own fantasy candidates to their ballot papers, including German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hollywood actor Chuck Norris, pop star Lady Gaga, Darth Vader and Yoda from the ‘Star Wars' films, and the main character in the political drama series ‘House of Cards', Frank Underwood.

One voter, who gave his name as Hrvoje from Zagreb, told BIRN that he spoiled his ballot paper because he "could not support any of the candidates, since all of them seem incompetent".