B-H OPPOSITION PARTIES WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN MOSTAR ELECTIONS

SARAJEVO, 11 June (Hina) - The alliance of five opposition parties, which intends to participate in the local elections in Mostar, asked from the European Union to enable the alliance to put up their own list of candidates for the City Council. The alliance includes the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) of Bosnia- Herzegovina, the Republican Party, the Union of Bosnian- Herzegovinian Social-Democrats (UBSD) and the Muslim-Bosniac Organisation (MBO). Its representatives yesterday tried but failed to submit a list with the names of 22 candidates for the elections to the Mostar City Council. Representatives of the European Administration of Mostar and the Temporary Election Commission in Mostar stated that the deadline for submitting the lists with election candidates expired on 9 June at midnight. Vice President of SDP, Zlatko Lagumdzija told a press conference in Sarajevo today that the deadline had not been publicized in the media, nor was it known to the public. According to the current Election Law, the deadline for the registration of candidates expires twenty days before the election date, which, in the case of Mostar, is June 10. The acting president of HSS of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Stanko Sliskovic, said that the creation of the joint list of opposition parties was an attempt to dissolve the 'political hypnosis imposed by the leading parties'. UBSD Vice President Sejfudin Tokic accused the Social- Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the representatives of which make up the Mostar election commission, of trying to destroy their political rivals. Opposition members stressed that their stance met full understanding of Carl Bildt's office. (hina) rm jn 111825 MET jun 96