HDZ IN TUZLA FORWARDS PROTEST LETTER TO OSCE

TUZLA, Sept 15 (Hina) - President of the election headquarters of the municipal committee of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in Tuzla, northern Bosnia, Ivica Marinovic, on Saturday evening sent a protest letter to the manager of the Tuzla-based Regional Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Ilario Chardo, pointing out irregularities in the work of the temporary local election commission, Herzeg-Bosnian news agency Habena said on Sunday. The letter said that a large number of Croats had been denied the right to vote because they were not on voters' lists delivered to polling stations, even though previous inspections showed that their names were on the lists. In the letter, Marinovic pointed out that such a mistake deliberately marginalized the Croat people and reduced the participation of Croats in the whole structure of the population in the Tuzka area. The letter also said that HDZ representatives had not been included in election committees. "The only right that the Tuzla HDZ exercised was the right to post its party monitors at polling stations, which helped notice irregularities in the work of the election commission", the letter pointed out. Marinovic concluded the letter with the hope that OSCE would correct its mistake by enabling those Croats who had been prevented to vote, to do so. (hina) ha rm 151355 MET sep 96