HSLS AND DC PRESENT ELECTION CANDIDATES IN CONSTITUENCY NO. 7

SAMOBOR, Oct 31 (Hina) - The coalition of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) and the Democratic Centre (DC) held an election rally in Samobor, 15km west of Zagreb, on Friday to present their candidates for forthcoming parliamentary elections in constituency no. 7. The list of candidates will be headed by DC leader Mate Granic. #L# Addressing a crowd of about 100 sympathisers, Granic accused the present government of incompetence in running the country, especially foreign affairs. "It takes some skill to run the foreign policy so badly, primarily with neighbouring countries, because our relations with Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are completely blocked, no progress has been achieved with Serbia and Montenegro, and relations with Italy are constantly tense," Granic said. "The only thing they were brilliant at was borrowing," the DC leader said, adding that such a huge debt would not have been a problem if the government had stimulated export. Confident that centrist and centre-right parties would win the vote, Granic said that the HSLS-DC coalition and their partners in a new government would run the country with greater responsibility and would take it into the European Union. HSLS leader Drazen Budisa said that this coalition would come out of the elections as the third strongest political force in the country and would form a smaller, but better and more capable government with their partners. Budisa said that the economic situation in Croatia was deteriorating because of the decreasing competitiveness of the economy, increased corruption and lack of media freedom. Constituency no. 7 covers the west of the country, stretching from just south of Zagreb to the northern Adriatic seaport of Rijeka. Of the coalition's 14 candidates in this constituency, eight are from the HSLS and six from the DC. (hina) vm sb