CROATIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES LAW ON INHERITANCE

ZAGREB, March (Hina) - The Croatian parliament on Tuesday passed a law on inheritance and amended the law on the election of representation bodies of local units, adjusting it to the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities. #L# Despite opposition from the government, MPs accepted several amendments put forward by the opposition's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which became an integral part of the law on the election of members of representation bodies. The law now includes a provision according to which only citizens residing and have registered residency in Croatia can vote in elections for representative bodies. The government had suggested that voting rights could be exercised by persons which only have registered residence in the country. HDZ whip Vladimir Seks pointed out that at previous local elections, voters from Yugoslavia who did not reside in Croatia cast ballots. Most MPs agreed. Parliament also adopted an HDZ amendment according to which the term of office in a representative body could cease or be frozen only in the case of death, incompetence or prison sentence, and not based on agreement among parties, as the government suggested. MPs also supported an amendment which makes it impossible for minority members to vote twice in elections. Parliament also adopted the law on inheritance which equates common-law partners and spouses for inheritance, narrows the circle of necessary inheritors to next-of-kin, envisages a simpler way of drawing up public wills and stipulates the establishment of a national register of wills. (hina) lml