HSLS PRESIDENT BUDISA ON TALKS WITH TUDJMAN

ZAGREB, May 3 (Hina) - Two officials of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) on Monday spoke to reporters in Zagreb about their morning talks with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. We talked for a half hour, exclusively about the electoral law, HSLS president Drazen Budisa said. President Tudjman voiced interest in reaching a compromise solution for the electoral law, and expressed willingness to have the number of Croatian Diaspora representatives in parliament reduced from the current 12 to six or seven, Budisa said. He acquainted the President with a model a group of six opposition parties, the Opposition Six, had previously adopted as the stand in negotiations with the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). The Opposition Six's staring point is for Croatia to be one electoral unit, and for all parties participating in elections to have the possibility of putting on their lists Croatian citizens without permanent residence in the country. The minimum number of these candidates could, according to Budisa, be regulated by law, but in the same status as all other candidates. Budisa said the opposition's motion would fully standardise the voter's active and passive rights for all Croatian citizens, which means there would be neither a separate list, nor a separate electoral unit for the Diaspora. Depending on electoral success, the parties would have to propose a certain number of candidates from their lists - Croatian citizens not residing in Croatia - for entry in parliament. Budisa concluded the most important aspect of the talks with Tudjman was the President's positive assessment of the opposition's motion and his appeal to the president of the HDZ parliamentary bench, Vladimir Seks, to have the ruling party further negotiate with the opposition on this basis. Budisa pointed out the opposition's electoral model presumed a proportionate system, with Croatia as one electoral unit. A solution could also be found for Diaspora representation in ten electoral units, he said, but added that model would be more complex. At the beginning of today's talks, President Tudjman expressed interest in having an agreement on the electoral model reached without international mediation, in not bringing into question the Diaspora's right to participate in elections, and in not putting the Diaspora in one electoral unit, a "political ghetto" as he said. Budisa stated he and the President had come closer to an agreement regarding the number of Diaspora representatives in parliament acceptable to the opposition, as well as regarding an electoral model acceptable to the President, given Tudjman's earlier statements that the HDZ was willing to accept the motion to have the current number of Diaspora MPs reduced by half. It is difficult to say whether we have reached a definite agreement, but we parted in the belief that further HDZ-opposition talks will be based on today's conclusions. According to the president of the HSLS parliamentary bench, Djurdja Adlesic, the HDZ-opposition talks will probably resume next week, once a House of Representatives session has ended. She assessed today's talks as pleasant and tolerant, and added she was somewhat surprised President Tudjman had accepted "Budisa's model". The reporters were interested in Budisa's and Adlesic's impressions of President Tudjman's health. Budisa said he would not engage in making assessments about the President's health, but reiterated the talks were held in a tolerant climate and that President Tudjman had showed maximum concentration on the issue being discussed. (hina) ha jn