HDZ HOLDS CENTRAL PRE-ELECTION RALLY IN SLAVONSKI BROD

SLAVONSKI BROD, Dec 31 (Hina) - The central pre-election rally of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) for the fifth constituency (covering three Slavonian counties) was held on Thursday evening in the eastern town of Slavonski Brod. The rally was addressed by HDZ candidates on the list for the fifth electoral unit. The joint message of HDZ candidates is that in the last nine years this party shared good and bad with its people. "We have proved that the HDZ worked well and it will continue working so," said Mirko Tomac. He asserted that "there were huge problems which HDZ faced upon coming to power," nine years ago. Tomac added that "the truth is painful" for the opposition. The HDZ put an end to negative trends and in the future it will particularly work on the reduction of the number of the jobless. Juraj Njavro voiced confidence in the victory of his party. Jadranka Kosor was also sure that the HDZ would win the coming election, explaining that the first Croatian President Franjo Tudjman showed to Croats that "they are a victorious people." The bearer and the first candidate of the HDZ list for this constituency, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, assessed that "all what was done in Croatia in the past nine years was done by the HDZ and President Franjo Tudjman. If the HDZ achieved all that, it will know how to carry out the second part of the programme - the economic development of Croatia". "In the next four years, the HDZ will work only on the reconstruction, economic progress and settlement of issues of unemployment and illiquidity," Skare-Ozbolt said. She added that HDZ candidates in the fifth unit will also advocate the return of refugees to their homes in the right sight of the Sava river (Bosnia-Herzegovina). (hina) ms