ZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - A debate in the Croatian parliament on amendments to the government-sponsored draft budget for this year was postponed from Wednesday to Thursday.
ZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - A debate in the Croatian parliament on
amendments to the government-sponsored draft budget for this year was
postponed from Wednesday to Thursday.#L#
The parliamentary discussion on amendments to the draft budget will
begin tomorrow morning, parliament president Vladimir Seks said on
Wednesday, yielding to pressure of the opposition that insisted that
the discussion on this every important document commence on Thursday
morning instead Wednesday afternoon.
Opposition MPs explained their request with the fact that it was
necessary that the debate on such an important issue be broadcast live
so that the public can follow the course of the debate. In case that
the discussion started on Wednesday afternoon, it could be prolonged
all the night when most of the TV audience would not watch its
coverage.
Luka Bebic of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) opposed the
proposal for the postponement of the discussion, adding that the
former coalition government and its majority in the parliament used to
adopt state budgets late in the night.
Ljubica Lalic of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) responded to his
accusations, saying that debates on amendments to the state budget had
started by the previous parliament always in the morning, except in
2000.
Parliamentary deputies of the Social Democrats (SDP), Libra and the
Croatian People's Party/ Primorje-Goski Kotar Alliance (HNS/PGS club),
asked Seks when the electronic model of voting would be reintroduced
in the parliamentary practice.
"If you fear that there may be a lack of discipline in your ranks, you
will solve the problem in other ways rather than resorting to non-use
of the (electronic) system for which tax payers have given over
200,000 euros," Milanka Opacic of the SDP said.
Seks said that the system was out of order, and as soon as it was
repaired it would be again used in the voting process.
After that Seks persisted in starting debates on seven bills
pertaining to the execution of the budget, and did not allow a break
which was asked by HSS and Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) MPs. The
session chairman's refusal provoked opposition deputies who began
banging the desks with their fists.
HSS leader Zlatko Tomcic warned Seks that under the Sabor's rule book
and parliamentary practice the chairman of the session should allow a
break at the request of a club of deputies, and told him to refrain
from arbitrariness.
Eventually Seks met the request of the opposition and ordered a
30-minute break.
After the break, it was said the the discussion on the budget would be
held on Thursday, and the session continued with a debate on
amendments to three laws which will make it possible for mothers, who
give birth to the third child or every further child as well as to
twins, to be on the three-year maternity leave.
(Hina) ms