ETHNIC MINORITIES' MEMBERS URGED TO GO TO THE POLLS FOR ADDITIONAL ELECTIONS

ZAGREB, Feb 5 (Hina) - The State Electoral Commission (DIP) chairman, Ivica Crnic, has called on members of ethnic minorities to go to the polls on 15 February when repeated and additional elections for members of ethnic minorities' councils and representatives in local authorities are scheduled to take place.#L# The elections will be repeated in units of local and regional self-government in which the councils of ethnic minorities were not established after the first ballot of this kind, held on 18 May 2003. Additional ballots are organised for councils in which all seats have not been filled. This time, the elections will be held for 392 units (namely councils). Candidatures have so far been lodged for 142 units, and it is evident that once again all the councils will not be filled and that the representation of ethnic minorities in some units will not be satisfactory, Crnic said on Thursday. He went on to say that elections for the councils or representatives of Austrian, Ruthenian and Ukrainian minorities would not be organised since nobody filed candidatures for the ballot. There will be a total of 21 additional elections for representatives of ethnic minorities in bodies of local units of self-government, including for representatives of the Croatian people in the municipalities of Sodolovci and Markusica where Croats account for a minority of the local population. The GONG non-governmental election monitoring organisation has launched a campaign aimed at informing ethnic minorities about the 15 February elections. GONG chairwoman Suzana Jasic said on Thursday that the HRT, OTV, NET, TV Jadran and Kanal RI television stations had began to broadcast clips on the voting on Wednesday, free of charge. There will be 20 education programmes to be aired by radio stations within this campaign. (Hina) ms