PROFILE OF SABOR VICE PRESIDENT ZDRAVKO TOMAC

ZAGREB, Feb 2 (Hina) - Newly elected Vice President in the House of Representatives of the Croatian National Sabor, Zdravko Tomac was born 24 May 1937 in Garcin near Slavonski Brod. He is a vice president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He is married and has one child. He graduated at the Economics Faculty in 1960 and gained his doctorate in 1976 at the University of Zagreb's Politics Faculty, with a thesis in political science. He has published 22 books in Croatian and several in foreign languages including several expert publication papers abroad. Upon completion of his studies he was employed at the Institute for Planning for the Slavonski Brod region and then as the municipal head for the economy and as such was appointed the president of the Socialist Alliance for the Slavonski Brod Municipality. He then returned to Zagreb and was employed in the then Republican Conference of the Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Croatia (SSRNH). Following the fall of the 'Croatian Spring' in 1972, he was compelled to resign from the Executive Committee of the SSRNH and began to work as an advisor for social-political systems in the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (SRH). Later he was employed in the Presidency of the SRH. During the last wave of ostracising of sympathisers of the Croatian Spring, he was dismissed of his office and was unemployed. Ten months later he was temporarily employed by the Institute for Modern History and then later in the "Monting" iron foundry in Kumrovec. In 1977 he was elected as the dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb and in 1983 as an associate professor. Three years later he became a regular professor. He participated in the formulating of amendments to the Constitution of the SRH and the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia SFRY of 1971 and of the new Constitution for the SRH and SFRY of 1974. After a break of 15 years of active political life, he returned to the political scene in 1989 when he was elected to the new reformist leadership of the SKH. The following year he was elected as a member of the Constitutional Commission of the SRH and worked in the inner group which formulated the so-called Christmas constitution adopted in the Sabor, December 22, 1990. At the beginning of August 1991, he was a deputy prime minister of the war time Government of National Salvation. He was also the vice president of the Crisis Headquarters of the Republic of Croatia and vice president of the government's co-ordination for international policies, immigration and the media. Because of his disagreement with Croatia's' official policies towards Bosnia-Herzegovina in the summer of 1992, he resigned from his duties as deputy prime minister. Last year he was elected as an MP to the Sabor's House of Counties and in 1995 to the House of Representatives. He was the SDP list carrier in 1995 and was elected as a councillor to the City and County Assemblies in Zagreb as well as the president of the Zagreb City Assembly and president of the Zagreb County Assembly. He contested the 1997 presidential election and gained second rating with 22 per cent of the vote in his favour. At the parliamentary ballot held in this January, he was elected as an MP from the SDP-HSLS coalition listing in the 3rd electoral unit. (hina) sp ms