ZAGREB, Nov 8 (Hina) - By the end of Wednesday's session of the House of Representatives, more than 30 amendments to a draft of constitutional changes were handed over to MPs, and additional amendments have been announced. The
Democratic Centre (DC) suggests that the matter of secret services should be excluded from the Constitution and be regulated only by legal acts. It proposes also that heads of those services should be appointed by the President of the Republic with the counter-signature of Premier. Those on the helm of the secret services should answer only before the Sabor's House of Representatives and its internal affairs and national security committee. The parliamentary bench of the Croatian People's Party/Liberal Party (HNS/LS) suggests an amendment under which the appointment of the secret services' heads should be signed both by President and Premier, who should previously take into cons
ZAGREB, Nov 8 (Hina) - By the end of Wednesday's session of the House
of Representatives, more than 30 amendments to a draft of
constitutional changes were handed over to MPs, and additional
amendments have been announced.
The Democratic Centre (DC) suggests that the matter of secret
services should be excluded from the Constitution and be regulated
only by legal acts. It proposes also that heads of those services
should be appointed by the President of the Republic with the
counter-signature of Premier. Those on the helm of the secret
services should answer only before the Sabor's House of
Representatives and its internal affairs and national security
committee.
The parliamentary bench of the Croatian People's Party/Liberal
Party (HNS/LS) suggests an amendment under which the appointment of
the secret services' heads should be signed both by President and
Premier, who should previously take into consideration the opinion
of the lower house's competent committee.
The bench of the Croatian Party of Rights/the Croatian Christian
Democratic Union (HSP/HKDU) suggests that the State Prosecutor
should be appointed by the House of Representatives for the term of
office of four years, but not at the initiative of the Government as
this would represent the interference of the executive authorities
in the job of the judiciary.
The DC bench proposes that the State Prosecutor be elected by the
lower house at the suggestion of the President of the Republic.
The Istrian Democratic Alliance (IDS) called on the Croatian
national parliament to return the names of three national
minorities - Bosniaks, Slovenians and Romany - into the
Constitution. The IDS recalls that all parties which now make up the
ruling coalition were against the deletion of those minorities from
the Constitution's preamble in 1998. The party believes that this
injustice should be redressed, and regional parties PGS (Primorje
and Gorski Kotar Alliance) and the SBHS (Slavonija-Baranja
Croatian Party) supported this initiative.
The aforementioned amendments will be considered by the
Constitution, Political System and Rule Book Committee tomorrow,
whereas the voting on the constitutional changes is expected to be
conducted on Thursday afternoon.
At the end of today's part of the parliamentary session Sabor
Speaker Zlatko Tomcic called on benches to continue with
consultations in order to achieve as higher as possible level of
their agreement on the Constitution's amendments. He said this
would be a kind of regular parliamentary consultations rather than
"swap" what some MP had mentioned earlier in the debate.
According to unofficial sources it is possible that the ruling six-
party coalition and the strongest opposition party - HDZ- will come
to terms. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is said to be asking
for the binding seat and instructions of the MP to be added in the
Constitution. In this way the HDZ will try to prevent further
weakening of its ranks as such a provision would bind its deputies
to vote in line with the instructions of their party's
parliamentary bench. According to unofficial information some
benches of parties in the ruling coalition are willing to accept
this request, while some strongly oppose it.
(hina) jn ms