MESIC'S ELECTORAL HEADQUARTERS: BUDISA'S TV CAMPAIGN TWICE AS LONG

ZAGREB, Jan 29 (Hina) - Presidential candidate Stipe Mesic's electoral headquarters on Saturday issued a statement with data on the financing of pre-electoral commercials aired on Croatian Radio and Television (HRT). Mesic's campaign on HRT covered 1,726 seconds on the air, costing US$66,246, whereas counter-candidate Drazen Budisa's covered 3,575 seconds, the statement said, pointing out Budisa's costs should be at least twice Mesic's. The statement, signed by the spokeswoman for Mesic's headquarters, Vjera Suman, also refuted Jozo Rados' recent claims that Mesic was not speaking the truth when doubling the cost of Budisa's, and greatly reducing the cost of his own campaign. Such claims offend Mesic as well as the entire Croatian public, the statement said. "We call on Mr. Rados to explain to the Croatian public his mathematics according to which 1,726 seconds is several times more than 3,575 seconds, and supposedly also more expensive," read the statement. The statement also denied claims of indebtedness to the media as of January 11. Order forms for commercials dated January 11 cannot refer to earlier reserved time-slots, since an order form's date does not stipulate the date of coming into force of debitor- creditor relations between two legal entities, the statement said. Mesic's electoral headquarters called on Budisa's headquarters to "in the interest of the public submit data on the financing of his promotion, as well as exact data from the HRT on how much they paid for the airing commercials." (hina) ha