GOVERNMENT ENDORSES FINAL ELECTION BILLS

ZAGREB, Oct 28 (Hina) - The Croatian Government on Thursday supported the final bills on the election of representatives to the Croatian National Sabor and on electoral units for the election of representatives to the House of Representatives, which were proposed by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) parliamentary bench. The HDZ will solve the problem of certain discrepancies in the legal solutions - one bill mentions nine and the other ten electoral units - through an amendment. The State Directorate for State Administration and Local Self- Government suggested and the Government adopted an amendment according to which the Government sets the amount of election campaign costs it will cover by a special decision, which "has to be adopted 20 days before the election day at latest". The Directorate's head Antun Palaric commented on accusations that the voters' list was not available, saying "no one has requested" it from the Directorate. On the last day of April this year, the voters' list was printed in full, Palaric said, adding the list was a public book and was accessible to everyone. Printing the whole list is a technical matter which would cost a lot of money because 500,000 to 600,000 pages would have to be printed, he added. Election commissions will verify the voters' list eight days before the elections. (hina) jn rml