ASHDOWN DISMISSES OBJECTIONS BY HDZ BIH TO ELECTION SYSTEM FOR MOSTAR

MOSTAR, Jan 13 (Hina) - The international community's High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, on Tuesday issued a letter in response to the criticism of a draft election system designed by the chairman of a commission to reorganise Mostar, Norbert Winterstein. The criticism was levelled at Winterstein by senior officials of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HDZ BiH).#L# The head of the party's branch in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Josip Merdzo, and the chairman of the party's committee in Mostar, Miroslav Coric, said in a joint letter sent recently to Ashdown that Winterstein's draft election system for this southern city was unlawful in relation to the legislation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and European practice. The two officials also said that Winterstein's proposal made the Muslim vote in Mostar more valuable than the Croat vote. In his response, which was released by the branch office of the High Representative in Mostar, Ashdown warned Merdzo and Coric that by applying the logic they were applying to the case of Mostar, one could arrive at the conclusion that the Croat vote was three times more valuable than the Muslim vote in the rest of the country. "At the 2002 elections, 516,610 votes were given to the Muslim member of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and 186,291 votes to the Croat member," Ashdown said. He also mentioned the example of the United States, where two senators from Wyoming represent 500,000 citizens, while two senators from California represent 35 million citizens. In many issues which require consensus in the European Union, 400,000 citizens of Luxembourg and 82 million Germans are represented with one vote each in the EU Council of Ministers, Ashdown recalled. (Hina) rml sb