OPPOSITION DISSATISFIED WITH WORKING GROUP FOR ELECTORAL LAW

ZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - The alliance of six Croatian Parliament opposition parties known as the "Opposition Six" and the Croatian Party of Rights expressed dissatisfaction Wednesday with the appointment of a working group for drawing up the principles and basic institutes of the new electoral law. If a consensus is requested on a certain subject, it must exist from the very beginning. The working groups should have been established based on a previous agreement and consensus by political parties, president of the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS), Zlatko Tomcic, told reporters. Presidents of almost all parliamentary parties stressed the same thing Wednesday. The working group, comprising lawyers and scholars in political sciences engaged in electoral legislature, was appointed by the chairman of the Parliament's Committee for the Constitution, Book of Rules and Political System, Vladimir Seks. President of the Liberal Party (LS) Vladimir Gotovac deems the appointment of the working group an act by which the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is demonstrating it could not be less interested in their agreement with the Opposition Six. We agreed we would set up and assemble the working group together. This shows how much the HDZ cares for negotiations and their commitments, Gotovac said. Ratko Maricic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) described as shameful that Seks had not considered even one expert from the Opposition Six circle when assembling the working group. (hina) lml mm