OSIJEK: OFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS CONFIRM HDZ'S VICTORY

OSIJEK, Jan 19 (Hina) - The Osijek-Baranja County Election Commission on Monday issued the official results of Sunday's early elections for the Osijek-Baranja County Assembly, according to which most votes - 35.27 percent - were won by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).#L# After returns from all 424 polling stations were processed, with 35.79 percent of the electorate having gone to the polls, it was established that the first runner-up is the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) with 14.36 percent of the vote, followed by the coalition of the Social Democratic Party, Croatian People's Party, Libra, and the Croatian Party of Slavonia and Baranja (SDP-HNS-Libra-SBHS) with 11.41 percent. The Croatian Pensioners' Party (HSU) also passed the election threshold by winning 7.01 percent of the vote, as did the Liberal Party (LS) with 6.25 percent, the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) with 6.12 percent, and the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) with 5.51 percent of the vote. The other nine individual and coalition lists failed to pass the election threshold of five percent. The Election Commission said that the new County Assembly would have 48 deputies, of whom 21 will be from the HDZ, eight from the HSP, six from the SDP-HNS-Libra-SBHS coalition, four from the HSU, and three from the LS, HSS and the SDSS each. Twenty HDZ members were elected directly into the assembly. Since three representatives from the SDSS list were elected into the assembly, and given that the county statute grants the Serb minority the right to four seats in the assembly, the fourth member of that minority will be elected from the roster of the HDZ, which won most of the vote, so the HDZ will have 21 deputies. (Hina) rml sb