GOTOVAC ELECTED FIRST PRESIDENT OF NEW LIBERAL PARTY

( Editorial: --> 6966 ) ZAGREB, Jan 24 (Hina) - Vlado Gotovac was Saturday elected the first president of the new Liberal Party. The only candidate, Gotovac received 580 of 623 votes at the party's founding assembly, held in Zagreb. In his address, Gotovac expressed belief in the victory of a united opposition at the next parliamentary election. "A free people does not complain about its government, but changes it if it is unsatisfactory", said Gotovac. The Liberal Party is a centre party and will stay there, he said. The new party has 1,300 members so far, of whom 500 are from the former Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS). Vlado Gotovac (67), writer, was one of the founders of the HSLS and was elected the party's president in 1996. He is a Croatian Parliament Member. At the summer 1995 presidential election, Gotovac won 17.5% of the total vote as a candidate of nine opposition parties. The Liberal Party (LS) was founded after the HSLS split in two, as the result of half the party members voting for Drazen Budisa as party president in December last year. The HSLS was the strongest opposition party in the Croatian Parliament winning 13 out of a total of 54 seats held by the opposition in the 1994 election. The Parliament seats 127 members. About half of the HSLS members of Parliament have sided with Gotovac, and half with Budisa. (hina) ha lm 241803 MET jan 98