CRO HOUSE OF COUNTIES DISMISSES OPPOSITION'S BILL ON ELECTIONS

ZAGREB, Oct 21 (Hina) - The Croatian National Parliament House of Counties on Wednesday dismissed a bill on elections into the Parliament drafted by six opposition parties. After several hours of discussion, the bill was rejected by 33 to 13 votes. Representatives of the ruling party and opposition parties were of differing opinions, especially concerning the participation of Croats who are not residents of Croatia in elections. Representatives of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) felt that the goal of the bill was to "eliminate the diaspora". The bill does not allow the diaspora to exercise their passive and active right to vote, Josip Majdenic (HDZ) said, dismissing claims that the diaspora had only brought an advantage to the HDZ in the last elections. Ivan Ninic of the Social democratic Party (SDP) said there was an inappropriately high percentage (about 10 per cent) of representatives of the diaspora in the House of Representatives. The diaspora must be enabled to express its views, but it must not be allowed to decide on who will rule Croatia, Ninic said. Vilim Herman of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) said he saw many advantages in the bill, primarily because it established a general and equal electoral right, meaning that MPs should be elected into the House of Counties according to the first-past-the- post system, not according to proportional representation. The second reason is that the bill would establish a more correct approach of the Croatian Ratio and Television towards elections, he said. Many MPs applauded a solution by which electoral committees would be multi-party committees. Miroslav Rozic of the Croatian Party of rights (HSP) suggested that the committees comprise only of representatives of parties that made it past the post in the last elections. The HSP opposes the suggested provisions that the candidate on the state list can at the same time be a candidate in an electoral unit. (hina) lml jn