SCHWARZ-SCHILLING VISITS MOSTAR

MOSTAR, 5 July (Hina) - The international mediator and arbitrator in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, on Friday visited Mostar where he held talks with municipal officials about the local elections which were held last Sunday. Schwarz-Schilling had separate meetings with the deputy head of the EU Administration in Mostar, Klaus Metscher, the EU Administration ombudsman, Constantin Zepos, and the director of the Regional Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Mostar, Wolfgang Odendahl. #L# Schwarz-Schilling told the Croatian news agency Hina that he was satisfied with Mostar elections and the way they had been organized, 'without any incidents'. 'These are the first democratic post-war elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina', Schwarz-Schilling said. 'It is now the task of the political parties to establish the City Council'. Asked to comment on the decision of the Municipal Election Commission which annulled elections at the polling station in Bonn, where there was a discrepancy between the number of ballots and the number of voters (there were 26 ballots more), Schwarz-Schilling said that those 26 ballots did not influence very much the election result, and that he personally held that the elections should be annulled only in case when there was a considerable imbalance in the election result. As regards the problem of the election result in Bonn, one should wait for the final decision of the EU Administration ombudsman Constantin Zepos, Schwarz-Schilling said. After the visit to Mostar, Schwarz-Schilling left for Sarajevo. (hina) rm jn 051413 MET jul 96