PARTY HEAD: HNS ADVOCATES DIRECT ELECTION OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES

ZAGREB, April 4 (Hina) - The Croatian People's Party (HNS) has for years advocated the direct election of mayors of municipalities and towns and county prefects, and is for the removal of possibilities of multiplying offices at the same time, the HNS leader Vesna Pusic said adding that now two years before the organisation of the next regular local elections it was the right time to discuss the matter in parliament. #L# The HNS president said the basic idea of bills, moved by her party, on the election of members of local representative bodies and the election of mayors of towns and municipalities and county prefects was that the elected persons should render accounts before local communities rather than their political parties. Thus mayors and county prefects will bear in mind that they are elected and given the term by their citizens and that they do not depend on good relations in their parties, Pusic added. HNS MP Darko Santic said the HNS bills were endorsed in their first reading in the Sabor, adding that segments regulating the relations between the executive authorities and representative bodies drew the most attention of those who debated the bills. This party has proposed that one person would no longer be able to be at the same time a mayor and an MP, given that those duties are demanding and it is difficult to carry out them simultaneously, according to the explanation of the HNS. (hina) ms sb