SARAJEVO, Jan 5 (Hina) - The international community's High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wolfgang Petritsch, on Wednesday congratulated the Social Democratic Party/Croatian Social Liberal Party (SDP/HSLS) coalition on winning
January 3 parliamentary elections in Croatia, and expressed belief the new government would take over the responsibility of continuing the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement. In a statement sent to the Sarajevo media, the High Representative says that the people of Croatia have demonstrated a clear wish for significant changes through democratic processes. Petritsch hopes that the new leadership of Croatia, which is a signatory to the Dayton agreement, will assume responsibility as a guarantor of the peace process in Bosnia, and believes that close cooperation will be established in the future implementation of the peace agreement. The High Representative, however
SARAJEVO, Jan 5 (Hina) - The international community's High
Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wolfgang Petritsch, on
Wednesday congratulated the Social Democratic Party/Croatian
Social Liberal Party (SDP/HSLS) coalition on winning January 3
parliamentary elections in Croatia, and expressed belief the new
government would take over the responsibility of continuing the
implementation of the Dayton peace agreement.
In a statement sent to the Sarajevo media, the High Representative
says that the people of Croatia have demonstrated a clear wish for
significant changes through democratic processes.
Petritsch hopes that the new leadership of Croatia, which is a
signatory to the Dayton agreement, will assume responsibility as a
guarantor of the peace process in Bosnia, and believes that close
cooperation will be established in the future implementation of the
peace agreement.
The High Representative, however, warns that international
monitors have reported a certain number of irregularities during
out-of-country voting on Bosnia's territory.
Those irregularities refer to the fact that numerous refugees were
not able to confirm their Croatian citizenship and were therefore
unable to vote; certain errors were spotted in voters' registers;
in the pre-election period the media favoured officials in power
and the number of voters at some polling stations was so large that
mistakes could easily happen.
Petritsch called on Croatian authorities to tackle those questions
as soon as possible.
He also stressed that, as far as he was concerned, the participation
of a constituent people from Bosnia-Herzegovina at the elections in
another country, without prior agreement, was a worrying anomaly.
(hina) rml