SDP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE PRESENTS ELECTORAL PLATFORM ON T.V.

ZAGREB, June 11 (Hina) - The Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate for the president of Croatia, Zdravko Tomac, said on Tuesday night he would be "a president of ordinary people and all citizens of Croatia" if elected in Sunday's vote. "I promise I will be completely different from the incumbent president," Tomac said in a special television programme designed for presidential candidates to present their electoral platforms. Noting that many people supported his programme, Tomac pledged he would be a non-party president who would try to achieve the broadest consensus on main problems of Croatian society. He said he would dissolve "the current para-state bodies" and transfer their powers to the Government, and that he would initiate constitutional changes to introduce a parliamentary system in the country. Tomac said he would push for a strong Government that would be responsible to Parliament rather than to the President "as it is the case today." "I am aware that my victory at this election would mean new parliamentary elections because my proposals could not pass in the present Parliament." Tomac said that the creation of the Croatian state was a heroic act of the present-day generation of the Croatian people, stressing that most of the credit for that should go to "ordinary little people from Croatia and the diaspora." He did not dispute the merits of the Croatian leadership in that process. Speaking of the Croatian army, Tomac said he was proud of its strength and professionalism, but stressed that politics should be left out of it. "Its objective should be to become a member of NATO one day," he added. Describing the economic situation as "very bad", he called for "a revision, but not annulment, of the privatisation process." "The strongest point of my programme is that the Croatian state must stop protecting a close circle of the rich and that it must draw up a new economic and social programme aimed at ordinary people," Tomac stressed. Commenting on the government's foreign policy and international pressure on Croatia, Tomac said that "failures of the Croatian government policies have made it possible for that pressure to be stronger and our resistance weaker." He underlined that the cause of all of Croatia's troubles lay in "the wrong assessment of the current government that the Bosnian problem can be solved through a compromise with the Serbs and without Bosniacs (Moslems)." Tomac stated that he would never have signed the Dayton and Erdut peace agreements because they contained elements contrary to the interests of the Croatian people. Tomac explained that he was against the Dayton and Erdut accords because the first one ceded the Croat-dominated Posavina region of northern Bosnia to the Serbs while the second recognised ethnic cleansing. He called for a simultaneous return of all displaced persons and refugees to their homes. Tomac warned that Croatia should not "make enemies" out of the United States and Europe because by exerting pressure they wanted to help Croatia. However, he noted that the international community "sometimes also demands what is not in Croatian interest." (hina) vm 111136 MET jun 97