HDZ BENCH PRESIDENT: GOVERNMENT'S URGENT PRACTICE IMPERMISSIBLE

ZAGREB, Dec 4 (Hina) - President of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) parliament party bench, Vladimir Seks, on Tuesday objected in parliament to the government's practice of sending numerous bills into urgent parliament procedure. HDZ MPs showed their dissatisfaction with such a practice by leaving the room when MPs were about to establish urgency for about 30 drafts which arrived from the government. As MPs of the HDZ and the Croatian Party of Rights left, the parliament had no quorum, so the amended agenda for the 18th session will be discussed at a later time, when there are a sufficient number of MPs in the room. Seks very harshly objected to the government sending bills into urgent procedure, without a valid explanation. The bills (about 30 of them) drafted by the government affect millions of citizens -- if the parliament should concede to the government's pressure to have a stack of bills submitted to it for urgent procedure, the parliament would turn into a simultaneous exhibition of lightning chess, Seks said. He claimed that MPs could not discern the reasons why the government had sent them 30 new bills at the last moment, let alone become acquainted with the bills. With such lightning action, working bodies are also brought into the position to only formally discuss bills, and the result is bad laws and their frequent amendments, Seks stressed. (hina) lml