8 CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENTIAL POLLS VIEW CAMPAIGNS AS SUCCESSFUL

ZAGREB, Jan 22 (Hina) - Before of the ban on electioneering which starts at Saturday midnight ahead of Croatia's presidential election scheduled for 24 January, all candidates except Zvonimir Separovic who did not come, held a news conference together in the Croatian Journalists' Society (HND) offices on Saturday afternoon.#L# Those eight contestants described their campaigns as successful. The candidate of the SDP-HSLS coalition, Drazen Budisa said he was satisfied with his campaign which was a continuation of a good European-style campaign of the coalition of his party, Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), before the recent parliamentary polls. Asked whether he agreed with a thesis that concerning the development of democracy in Croatia it does not matter at all who out of three top contestants (Mate Granic, Stipe Mesic and he, according to opinion polls) will win the presidential ballot, Budisa answered that "it would be good that the best may win, but nothing awful would happen if any of three of us won." The candidate of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Mate Granic, emphasised he had been dissatisfied with the very beginning of his campaign for the election, but he was satisfied with its end. The candidate of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), Anto Djapic, who was also content with the campaign, said he was not happy with a failure to provoke actions that would help make completely public files of all candidates who were running for the presidential election or make public sources that financed those campaigns. Stipe Mesic, the candidate of the block of parties - HNS (Croatian People's Party), HSS (Croatian Peasants' Party), LS (Liberal Party) , IDS (Istrian Democratic Assembly) along with the ASH (Action of Social Democrats of Croatia) - said he was generally satisfied with the campaign, although there were minor imputations. Tomislav Mercep, the leader of the Croatian Populist Party (HPS), expressed satisfaction with the campaign which he assessed "as calm on the surface but dirty under it." Ante Prkacin, the leader of the New Croatia party, was also content but described the campaign as very dirty. He said he had hoped that the run-up to the election would have contained "more face-to-face debates and less gaudery and dazzling" Independent candidate Ante Ledic voiced also satisfaction after his many rallies throughout Croatia. Another independent candidate, Slaven Letica, positively assessed the media coverage of campaigns, stressing that some candidates however enjoyed greater support of certain media, but such backing reflected the importance of a candidate in concern. Since the recent parliamentary election (January 3) the state television has become "more cautious and a bit more objective," Letica asserted. (hina) ms