ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - Clubs of deputies of opposition parties in parliament called on the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to discontinue the process of appointing external members of parliamentary working bodies and reach
agreement with the opposition on all the appointments and repeat the entire process. HDZ MPs labelled this proposal as unnecessary adding that the appointments were defined by the Sabor's rule book.
ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - Clubs of deputies of opposition parties in
parliament called on the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to
discontinue the process of appointing external members of
parliamentary working bodies and reach agreement with the opposition
on all the appointments and repeat the entire process. HDZ MPs
labelled this proposal as unnecessary adding that the appointments
were defined by the Sabor's rule book.#L#
Opposition MPs believe that at its session last night the elections
and nominations commission abandoned the usual parliamentary practice
when it did not let other committees to voice their positions on whom
they wanted to see as their external members.
External members of committees are experts in specific fields covered
by the committees' work, and they have all the rights as other members
on the committees, except the right to vote.
"The arbitrariness will stain the dignity of the Sabor and undermine
the pillars of parliamentarism," the head of the Croatian Peasant
Party (HSS), Zlatko Tomcic, told HDZ leaders, announcing that HSS
deputies would stop participating in the further discussions on
motions of the elections and nominations commission.
Nenad Stazic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said on Wednesday
that opposition MPs had been told a day before that Sabor President
Vladimir Seks had decided which associations could nominate their
members as external members of some parliamentary bodies.
The elections and nominations commission's head, Branimir Glavas,
asserted that "some individuals have evidently forgotten that the
elections were held and that the situation in parliament is now
different". This prompted Stazic to respond that "no election results
allows the election's winner to carry out violence against democracy
in the parliament".
Jozo Rados of the Libra party said that some external candidates were
proposed in accordance with family links and party affiliation.
HDZ members refuted all accusations.
(Hina) ms sb