PRESIDENT. CANDIDATE MERCEP: HAPPY PEOPLE GUARANTEES SAFE STATE

ZAGREB, Jan 13 (Hina) - Croatian Populace Party presidential candidate Tomislav Mercep on Thursday promised to those who will vote for him at impending elections a law-based Croatia, justice for all, love for the Homeland, and improved relations with the world, especially the European Union. Mercep promised he would advocate the prevention of crime and corruption, the reduction of differences between the rich and the poor, employment, and integration into the world trade system. He will advocate the raising of the standard of living, and of social and health care, as well as special care for the young and the elderly. He believes it is imperative to restore trust in Croatian science via short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans. "A satisfied people is guarantee of a safe state," said Mercep. "I have been underestimated in Croatian politics," he asserted, adding he was a responsible family man, primarily a businessmen who had become a military policeman in the defence of the country last decade. Mercep said he had never been a member of the former Yugoslav communist alliance. With the onset of democracy in the early 1990s, he founded and was the first president of the formerly ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in Vukovar. He left the party in 1996 at its fourth general assembly, when he responded to a HDZ slogan stating that thieves ought to be caught by saying thieves were sitting in the party's ranks. Asked how he would cooperate with Croatia's new government which will be composed by people whose political beliefs are the opposite of his own, Mercep said he did not think the government would be the opposite of him. As regards the need to reduce the authorities of the president of the republic, advocated by some presidential candidates, Mercep said he first intended to tackle the core of the problem, namely analyse the president's services and expenditure and then see what needs to be eliminated. (hina) ha mm