CROATIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES' LEADERS END MEETING IN OSIJEK

OSIJEK, Oct 11 (Hina) - After three-day talks in Osijek, the leaders of four Croatian opposition parties held a news conference in the town on Saturday. Leaders of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS), Croatian People's Party (HNS) and the Istrian Democratic Union (IDS) informed reporters about the conclusions of their talks. Deputy President of the HSLS, Zlatko Kramaric read a joint statement signed by the parties' presidents. Regarding electoral laws, the parties asked that Croatian citizens residing in Croatia have the right to vote, that so-called diaspora lists be abolished, based on which 12 MPs for the House of Representatives had been elected from the diaspora. They also asked the lowering of the electoral threshold to three percent for one party's list of candidates and to five percent for a list of candidates of two or more political parties, as well as the election of MPs for the Croatian Parliament's House of Counties by the 'first past the post' system. "Assessing that it is not possible to create a completely independent television network in Croatia at this moment, the signatory parties adopted final amendments to the Law on Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) which stipulates the establishment of the HRT Council comprised of the first Programme Council, in which the representatives of the majority in Parliament have a majority, and the Second Programme Council, predominated by representatives of the Parliament minority," the statement said. Regarding the local government and self-government, the four parties advocated the administrative and territorial division of territory on the principles of regional organisation, the expansion of local self-government authority, a special legal status for big cities and a separate legal status for the city of Zagreb, as well as the prevention of "administrative dissipation of the country into an unsustainably large number of municipalities". The parties expressed their satisfaction with the work of the Croatian ombudsman in the implementation of the Constitutional Court decision to annul certain provisions of the Law on temporary confiscation and management of particular property, and suggested giving propositions for the assessment of the constitutionality of the Law Adjustment Act "because of oversights made during its adoption process". The Law Adjustment Act stipulates the revision and validation of documents and decisions made by illegal authorities in formerly occupied areas of Croatia. In their statement, the four opposition parties agreed that the "pressures of the international community could have been avoided by leading a different, European, credible Croatian foreign policy, especially regarding the timely and correct fulfilment of undertaken and signed commitments towards the international community". (hina) lm 111535 MET oct 97