PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BUDISA HOLDS PRE-ELECTORAL RALLY IN PULA

PULA, Jan 15 (Hina) - Addressing a pre-electoral rally in the northern Croatian port of Pula on Saturday, presidential candidate Drazen Budisa said he was sure he would win at January 24 elections given that he was backed by the coalition which won recent parliamentary elections. Budisa is the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party/Croatian Social Liberal Party (SDP/HSLS) coalition. Speaking about his priorities upon becoming Croatia's new president, Budisa said he would step out of his party, the HSLS, the day after the elections, in order to avoid past experience in which the president of a party was also president of state, and where state and homeland were identified with one party. "To prevent that from happening again, I will appoint to the presidential council representatives of all political parties, wise men of various political orientation," said Budisa. Together with a government headed by SDP's Ivica Racan and a parliamentary majority, Budisa said he would take Croatia onto the path of the rule-of-law, where crime will be stopped, solidarity with one's own people achieved, and where the state will be governed justly and efficiently. Budisa told the residents of the northern Adriatic peninsula of Istria they would not have to listen to lessons from Zagreb on how to think and feel in national terms. He promised respect for difference and diversity which he said were evidence of Croatia's specific qualities and state riches. "We will treat the Opposition with respect, we will not be arrogant as the previous authority regardless of how the Opposition will be critical of us, we will never label it enemy of the state," Budisa said. (hina) ha