OSCE CHANGES ELECTORAL RULES IN MOSTAR

SARAJEVO, Sept 13 (Hina) - OSCE Mission Chief in Bosnia- Herzegovina Robert Frowick said Saturday that the Provisional Electoral Commission had officially adopted changes to electoral rules under which residents of the central zone of Mostar would be enabled to vote exclusively for councillors in one of the six town municipalities. Frowick told a news conference in Sarajevo that the decision had been reached after the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Assembly had on Saturday adopted an amendment to the statute of Mostar, which would improve the existing situation and the organisation and subsistence of the town of Mostar. #L# The aim of the adopted amendment was one unified, not divided town such as Berlin had been, Frowick said, stressing that the measures taken had been fully in line with the Agreement on the Organisation of Mostar. Frowick said that the Croat side in Mostar had also abandoned ideas of creating an alliance of three municipalities in which Croats were a majority, and had confirmed that it accepted the guidelines and suggestions of the UNHCR pertaining to the return of refugees. He said that problems with the local Croat authorities in Zepce (100 kilometres north of Sarajevo) had been resolved, and it had been agreed that polling stations in the municipality which had been closed on Saturday morning were to be opened immediately. He said the electoral process in the whole of Bosnia was being carried out in a satisfactory and effective manner. Spokesman for the OSCE Mission, David Foley said that only two polling stations were still closed in Usora, a Croat enclave in the north of Bosnia. He stressed it was a problem concerning the opposition of local authorities to the concept of divided municipalities. Reports had arrived that Bosnian Serb police near Rogatica in eastern Bosnia were intimidating voters who had arrived from the Bosnian Federation, Foley said, adding that the international police were involved in solving the problem. Standstill in the voting process has been registered only in Drvar so far. Foley said that OSCE had complaints about members of local electoral commissions who were attempting to slow down the electoral process, especially when it came to Serbs who had arrived to vote. He warned that, if necessary, OSCE would set up mobile polling stations in Drvar, so that everyone who had arrived there on Saturday would be allowed to vote. (hina) lm mm 131903 MET sep 97