INITIATIVE FOR TENJA TO BE PERMANENT MUNICIPALITY NOT SUPPORTED

( Editorial: --> 3393 ) OSIJEK/TENJA, May 12 (Hina) - The vote by residents of the provisional municipality of Tenja, which took place between May 4 and 8 and was to determine the future status of this village, has yielded no results as the turnout was less then one third of the electorate. This means that the initiative of Serb Democratic Independent Party (SDSS) councillors for Tenja to be given the status of a permanent municipality has not been supported. Former United Nations Transitional Administrator Jacques Klein established the temporary municipality of Tenja for a period of one year. From a total of 5,555 voters, some 700 people participated in the vote and supported the SDSS initiative. Since the vote did not succeed, Croatian authorities will not consider the initiative, said Tomo Povreslo, deputy head of the provisional municipality. The vote failed since less than one third of voters participated in the vote, said head of the Osijek County office for general administration Franjo Zdravcevic, adding the vote was valid only if at least one third of voters showed up at the elections. The result of the vote shows that most residents of Tenja believe that the municipality should return to the city of Osijek, Povreslo said. "It is the only way they can exercise their rights and secure good reconstruction of their houses and infrastructure, which until now has not been satisfactory," he added. Povreslo said he believed that the small number of Serb residents at the polls showed that most of them believed that they could not realise their interests in Tenja as an independent municipality. "Obviously, the SDSS estimated things badly," Povreslo said accusing some SDSS officials and officials in the provisional municipality of caring for their personal and financial interests, and not for those of Tenja residents. However, the provisional municipality issued a statement saying the "Croat residents completely boycotted the vote" while "fear, uncertainty and hopelessness was the cause of such a low turnout of Serb residents". The municipality believes that Croatian authorities should still accept and implement the initiative because it could stop the emigration trend among Serb residents of Tenja and increase their trust in Croatian authorities. (hina) rm/mrb 122028 MET may 98