LOWER HOUSE ON STATUS OF ITS PRESIDENT UNTIL ELECTION OF NEW HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ZAGREB, Nov 24 (Hina) - A discussion on defining the status and authorities of the President and Vice-Presidents of the National Sabor's House of Representatives in the period from the dissolution of the (previous) House of Representatives until the constitution of the new house (after a parliamentary election) was discontinued after representatives of the parliamentary benches expressed their stands before the Sabor on Wednesday morning. Following the one-hour-long debate, Vlado Gotovac of the Liberal Party (LS) made a remark that there was no written draft of the act. "We discuss the contents which do not exist," Gotovac said asking for a half-hour pause at the 44th session of the lower house. His suggestion was supported by the bench of the Social and Democratic Party (SDP). We back efforts to solve the issue of the status and authorities of the lower house's president and vice- presidents, but the committee for rules, the Constitution and the political system, has presented its opinion on the general situation, and failed to propose the act, Mato Arlovic of the SDP said. Although he tried to convince deputies to continue the session, as a draft act would be handed over to their benches in the Sabor's hall, the lower house's President, Vlatko Pavletic, had to yield eventually and give a pause. During the one-hour discussion, opposition benches' deputies consented to the necessity that the low house should, through an adequate act, establish that the status and authorities of the president and vice-presidents of the House of Representatives last until the constitution of a new composition of the lower house and election of the new house's president and vice-presidents. The head of the parliamentary rules committee, Vladimir Seks, conveyed the stance of that body that there was no doubt that after the expiry of the term of members of the parliament, the president and vice-presidents remain in office. They would have rights and duties envisaged by the Constitution (the right of the Sabor's President specified by the Constitution's Article 97, subsection 1). We are not against that the House's president and vice-presidents can continue performing their duties if we pass the adequate act, said MPs. Arlovic added it was possible to be done either by a Constitutional Law or a decree on the dissolution of the House of Representatives. Luka Trconic of the HSS (Croatian Peasants' Party) pointed to the constitutional authorities of the Sabor's President to replace the President of the Republic in certain cases. Those are sufficiently strong arguments to draw a conclusion that the only solution is that the Sabor's President remains in office, Trconic said adding this should be confirmed by the authority of the Sabor's lower house. Without bringing into a question the position of the Sabor's President, Njegovan Starek pointed, on behalf of the bench of minorities' deputies, to the problem of vice-presidents. What would be if something happened to the Sabor's President, who would perform his duties, Starek wondered. Arlovic proposed that a possibility should be considered that the Sabor's president be authorised to convene a session of the current composition of the Sabor in case that extraordinary situations occur before the new election and the constitution of the new lower house. Statements given by Damir Kajin of the IDS (Istrian Democratic Alliance), provoked disapproval from representatives of the ruling HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union). Reacting upon Kajin's statement that the entire state (Croatia) was designed to fit only one man and his quoting of an unnamed column writer as saying that all that was totalitarian regime under the guise of democracy and that's why all those constitutional loopholes appeared, a group of HDZ deputies left the Hall of the Sabor. (hina) ms