NGOS CAN ATTEND SABOR SESSIONS, BUT ARE ASKED NOT TO HAMPER MPS

ZAGREB, Feb 13 (Hina) - Non-governmental organisations can be present at sessions of the Croatian national parliament, but all NGOs will be treated equally and all of them are expected to respect House Rules, said Sabor high-ranking officials commenting on announcements of an NGO, called GONG, to follow the work of the Sabor after this organisation ('GONG' stands for the Citizens' Organised Monitoring of Elections) observed the conduct of the recent parliamentary and presidential elections in Croatia. MPs added that one should bear in mind that 53 seats in the gallery are allocated for citizens to follow the work of parliamentarians in the Big Hall (Velika Vijecnica). Sabor services have informed that there are a total of 109 seats in the gallery - 26 of them are booked for reporters, 30 for the diplomatic corps and the rest is for ordinary citizens. Sabor President Zlatko Tomcic said the parliamentary presidency had recently expressed readiness to make the Sabor's work open to the public, in line with possibilities of the house where sessions take place. Those possibilities are relatively small and in case a higher number of NGOs regularly apply for their attendance at sessions we shall be forced to make lists, Tomcic added. "We want to be open to the Croatian public, but we must be fair to everybody," Tomcic stressed. A Vice President of the Sabor's House of Representatives, Ivic Pasalic, shared a similar opinion. In Pasalic's mind, the Sabor should be open to the public to the utmost, but he maintained that its work had been open so far as well thanks to the media coverage. Tomcic, Pasalic and another Vice President of the Sabor, Mato Arlovic, said all 'guests' had to obey the order in the houses and should not disturb the work of MPs. According to Arlovic, all citizens and their associations have the right to come to the Sabor as it is their parliament and the assembly of representatives they have elected. It is good that they can follow what MPs are working, but people often confuse the issue of powers and authorities and think they should supervise the Sabor. Neither organisations nor individuals can supervise the Sabor. This can be done only by citizens and they do it at elections, Arlovic said. Arlovic did not oppose the idea that GONG activists record who is present at the parliamentary session and how many times an MP is absent. Such kind of 'control' has already been carried out by the media. It is no problem whether such control will be also conducted by an association, but all who do it must not interfere with the work of deputies to the House of Representatives and should be aware that deputies cannot sit in the Sabor 10 to 12 hours continuously how long some debates or sessions can last, Arlovic added. A MP, Djurdja Adlesic, maintained that it was good that deputies be under the watchful eye of the public. In the last four years, the (former) composition of the House of Representatives did not work well and the hall was often empty, she said adding that the new composition of the lower house found a solution to this matter so that now deputies would vote on a certain issue after the end of the debate and not only on Friday, as it used to be a practice, Adlesic added. (hina) ms