ZAGREB, April 30 (Hina) - Ivo Sanader was elected new president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) on Sunday, the second day of the party's fifth general convention in Zagreb. Sanader won the vote of 947 out of a total of 1,370
HDZ delegates who cast their ballots, while his counter-candidates, Ljerka Mintas-Hodak and Branimir Glavas, won 274 and 130 votes respectively. Hrvoje Hitrec, Drago Krpina, and Mato Simic were elected HDZ vice presidents. Expressing gratitude to those who voted for him and to his counter-candidates on a "fair battle", Sanader paid respects to Croatia's and HDZ's first president, the late Franjo Tudjman. Sanader promised he would pursue with Tudjman's political tradition, which he said had created the sovereign and independent Croatian state. The basic guideline of HDZ's policy is contained in the slogan "All for Croatia, Croatia for Nothing," Sanader said. Earlier tod
ZAGREB, April 30 (Hina) - Ivo Sanader was elected new president of
the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) on Sunday, the second day of the
party's fifth general convention in Zagreb.
Sanader won the vote of 947 out of a total of 1,370 HDZ delegates who
cast their ballots, while his counter-candidates, Ljerka Mintas-
Hodak and Branimir Glavas, won 274 and 130 votes respectively.
Hrvoje Hitrec, Drago Krpina, and Mato Simic were elected HDZ vice
presidents.
Expressing gratitude to those who voted for him and to his counter-
candidates on a "fair battle", Sanader paid respects to Croatia's
and HDZ's first president, the late Franjo Tudjman.
Sanader promised he would pursue with Tudjman's political
tradition, which he said had created the sovereign and independent
Croatian state.
The basic guideline of HDZ's policy is contained in the slogan "All
for Croatia, Croatia for Nothing," Sanader said.
Earlier today, HDZ presidential candidate Glavas called a press
conference at which he voiced suspicion in the regularity of the
intra-party vote, criticising party vice president Ivic Pasalic of
standing behind "a dirty electoral engineering."
Glavas showed a slip with the names of candidates for senior party
positions which had been given furtively to the convention's
delegates and which, according to him, was intended as an
instruction to delegates to elect Mintas-Hodak HDZ's president and
Milan Kovac her deputy. Glavas assumed the contentious slip came
from Mintas-Hodak's electoral headquarters.
"I did not take part in the work of electoral commissions, but only
helped in technical preparations for the voting," Pasalic said
refuting Glavas' accusation. He added he knew nothing about the
contentious slip.
Commenting on Glavas' accusation that a box had been found with
surplus ballots for the election of HDZ's president, Pasalic said
the surplus was the result of the fact that 2,000 party delegates
were expected at the convention. He confirmed 402 ballots had been
destroyed and sealed in a box. The ballots were distributed under
strict control, and there was no possibility of abuse, he said.
(hina) ha