ZAGREB, April 26 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic said on Monday he expected presidential elections to be held at the end of this year or the beginning of the next, by which time he expected a new election law that would ensure the
transparency of presidential election campaign financing.
ZAGREB, April 26 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic said on Monday he
expected presidential elections to be held at the end of this year or
the beginning of the next, by which time he expected a new election
law that would ensure the transparency of presidential election
campaign financing.#L#
"I think elections will take place at the end of December this year or
the beginning of January next year," Mesic said in a Croatian Radio
programme.
The President said he was planning to spend around four million kuna
on his election campaign.
Asked from which parties he expected support, Mesic said that only the
Croatian People's Party (HNS) had announced its support and that he
had not yet approached any party for support.
"I have heard that the HSLS (Croatian Social Liberal Party) may not
support me, but that its members will," Mesic said in a comment on
reports that some members of the HSLS opposed the idea of their party
officially backing Mesic as a presidential candidate.
Mesic recalled that the last parliamentary election was won by the
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which he said now had all the power
in its hands. He added that it was up to citizens to decide whether
Croatia needed "a corrective factor of authority".
Responding to questions about the European Commission's positive
opinion of Croatia's EU membership application and the country's
efforts to draw closer to the EU, the President said he expected
Croatia to be ready for EU entry by 2007 and to become a member of the
bloc that year.
Mesic said that the positive opinion was also the result of the
"softened" stance of prosecutors from the Hague war crime tribunal who
he said had realised that Croatia had no reason to protect anyone in
particular before the tribunal because all the witnesses, suspects and
indictees had responded to the summonses from the tribunal.
The President once again called on fugitive general Ante Gotovina to
surrender to the tribunal and defend his honour and the honour of the
Croatian army there.
Mesic said that all interested parties before the tribunal could use
all transcripts and video recordings possessed by his office.
(Hina) vm sb