ZAGREB, Jan 23 (Hina) - A ban on electioneering was imposed at midnight on Saturday ahead of Monday's presidential election in Croatia. The media blackout will be in force until Monday midnight when first unofficial election results
should be announced. About 4.2 million Croatian citizens living in the country and abroad will go to the polls for the third time to elect the president of the state among nine candidates.
ZAGREB, Jan 23 (Hina) - A ban on electioneering was imposed at
midnight on Saturday ahead of Monday's presidential election in
Croatia. The media blackout will be in force until Monday midnight
when first unofficial election results should be announced.
About 4.2 million Croatian citizens living in the country and
abroad will go to the polls for the third time to elect the president
of the state among nine candidates. #L#
Running in the election are Drazen Budisa of the Social Liberal
Party/Croatian Social Liberal Party (SDP/HSLS) coalition, Anto
Djapic of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), Mate Granic of the
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), independent candidates Ante Ledic
and Slaven Letica, Tomislav Mercep of the Croatian Popular Party
(HPS), Stjepan Mesic of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), Ante
Prkacin of the New Croatia (NH) party, and independent candidate
Zvonimir Separovic.
To win tomorrow's elections, the candidates must win the majority
of votes. If this does not happen, the second election round will be
organised in two week's time, on February 7, however, it will see
only the two candidates who have won the most votes in the first
round.
The nine candidates competing in the presidential campaign
presented their programmes in the last two weeks. Today and
tomorrow, however, the electioneering ban is in force and it
forbids any form of electoral promotion, the publishing of
estimates on the election result or unofficial election results, as
well as the publishing of the candidates' photographs in the press,
their giving interviews or statements to the media, or quoting the
candidates' statements or written works.
A total of 7,038 polling stations will be opened in Croatia and
abroad on Monday. Croatian citizens living in 48 countries in the
world will be able to cast their ballots at 141 polling stations.
Unlike the out-of-country vote in the recent parliamentary
election, which lasted two days, the voting in the presidential
election will last one day.
Some 6,900 polling stations, of which 6,477 are the regular ones,
will be opened in Croatia from 7am to 7pm. The election will be
implemented by some 43,700 members of voters' committees.
The voting procedure will be supervised by some 5,000 monitors from
domestic non-government organisations and another 500 foreign
monitors. Some 250 domestic and foreign reporters are expected to
cover the election.
Tomorrow's election is the second election Croatian citizens are
participating in this year. Like the recent parliamentary
election, which took place on January 3, the presidential election,
too, is held on a Monday, which by a Government regulation was
declared a holiday.
Tomorrow's ballot is the third presidential ballot at which
Croatian citizens will elect their president for a period of five
years. The first presidential election in Croatia took place in
1992, when Franjo Tudjman was elected president among eight
candidates. Tudjman was re-elected president in 1997. He died on
December 10, 1999, two and a half years before the expiry of his
mandate.
(hina) rml