JELAVIC ASKS CRO TOP OFFICIALS TO BACK CHANGES OF ELECTORAL RULES

MOSTAR, Oct 14 (Hina) - The Croat member in Bosnia-Herzegovina's three-man Presidency, Ante Jelavic, on Saturday forwarded a letter to Croatia's top officials - President Stjepan Mesic, Premier Ivica Racan and Sabor Speaker Zlatko Tomcic - appealing to them for their support to bids to alter the recently adopted rules about the election of deputies to Bosnia's parliament and the Croat-Moslem federal assembly. Refusing a recent decision of the (OSCE-led) Provisional Election Commission, which, in the opinion of a Bosnian Croat political party - the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) - brings Bosnian Croats into an unequal position, the party's president Ante Jelavic told a news conference in Mostar on Friday that the Commission's decision meant that Bosniaks (Moslems) in six cantons with a Moslem majority could thus exert crucial influence on the election of 19 or 20 Croat deputies of all 30 Croat MPs in the Federation's House of Nations, complaining that on the other hand, Croats could not impact the election of Bosniak representatives. The party's presidency on Thursday night held an extraordinary session and announced a possibility of the boycott of the 11 November vote in case the disputable rule was not changed. On Saturday Jelavic wrote that the latest decision of Robert Barry, the OSCE mission head in Bosnia, had brought "the Croat people... in the position that its deputies in the House of Nations of the Bosnian Federal Assembly are dominantly elected by representatives of the Bosniak (Moslem) and other peoples in cantonal assemblies." Viewing Barry's decision as not in compliance with the constitution, Jelavic said those (new) rules posed a threat to Croat people's constituent and equal position in the only institution at the federal level where Croats can put a veto. The Bosnian Presidency's Croat member wrote to Mesic, Racan and Tomcic that the decision of the international officials in Bosnia on this matter was beyond the Constitution and law. "Respecting the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia on the care for Croats outside the motherland, we expect of you to support the legal and legitimate right of Croats in Bosnia- Herzegovina to elect their legal and legitimate representatives ... during a fair democratic electoral match, at the forthcoming general elections in Bosnia," read Jelavic's letter to the Croatian most senior officials. Jelavic insists that the forthcoming ballot be conducted in line with rules which the Provisional Commission applied for the 1995 and 1996 elections in Bosnia, until a new election law is not passed in accordance with the Bosnian Constitutional Court's ruling that all three peoples - Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks - are constituent in the entire Bosnia-Herzegovina. Jelavic notified Mesic, Racan and Tomcic that he was conducting dialogues with all political parties with the 'Croat' predeterminer in Bosnia and all relevant scientific, cultural and religious institutions of Bosnian Croats on this matter, adding that they are on the path towards reaching consensus on the necessity for the Provisional Election Commission to change the disputable decision. He is also carrying out intensive talks with officials of important international institutions in Bosnia. If the rules are not changed, which Jelavic described as unfair toward Croats, the Croat people and its political representatives maintain their legitimate right to take an independent decision on models for the protection of their rights, which the Constitution gives them as a sovereign and constituent people in Bosnia, the letter concluded. It was forwarded to the media in Mostar, political parties with the 'Croat' predeterminer, religious dignitaries, ambassadors accredited in Sarajevo and international organisations and institutions in charge of the conduct of the ballot in Bosnia. (hina) ms