PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS TO BE REPEATED AT 11 POLLING STATIONS

ZAGREB, Jan 12 (Hina) - Elections for the Croatian National Parliament House of Representatives will be repeated at 11 polling stations on January 16, with 8,900 people voting. Chairman of the Croatian National Electoral Commission Marijan Ramuscak said Wednesday that due to the dispersion of votes, results of the repeated voting will not significantly affect the electoral results. Asked what would happen if there will be mote ballots than voters again at these polling stations, Ramuscak said the elections would be repeated again. However, in that case, they would be held shortly afterwards, within a week. No complaints have arrived at the Commission in the past four days which is how long the presidential electoral campaign has lasted in Croatia. Ramuscak commented on this with the fact that candidates were trying to be orderly and not exit civilised frames. According to binding orders of the Commission, the presidential elections will be followed by political parties whose candidates are taking part in the elections, domestic non-government organisations and foreign observers. According to expectations, there could be between 5,000 and 6,000 Croatian observers from NGO's, and the first requests for foreign observers are beginning to come in -- the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has announced some 200 observers, and the European Monitoring Mission about 70, Ramuscak said. The Commission decided for observers who observed the parliamentary elections and will be observing the presidential elections, not to be issued new identification cards, they can use the ones they had been issued for the previous elections. (hina) lml