ZAGREB, June 17 (Hina) - Parliamentary benches on Tuesday had different opinions about whether parliament should give a credible interpretation of events in the Osijek-Baranja County Assembly. Opposition parties believe that the
Assembly lost a quorum to verify the mandate of the replaced Croatian People's Party councillor after 26 councillors resigned and ask for new elections. The ruling coalition MPs are confident that the verification was executed in line with the law and that no special interpretations are required.
ZAGREB, June 17 (Hina) - Parliamentary benches on Tuesday had
different opinions about whether parliament should give a credible
interpretation of events in the Osijek-Baranja County Assembly.
Opposition parties believe that the Assembly lost a quorum to
verify the mandate of the replaced Croatian People's Party
councillor after 26 councillors resigned and ask for new elections.
The ruling coalition MPs are confident that the verification was
executed in line with the law and that no special interpretations
are required. #L#
The ruling coalition benches supported a report by the committee on
legislation under which the assembly has a sufficient number of
councillors for the Assembly's work and decision-making, while the
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) suggests otherwise.
Opposition parties, led by the HDZ, believe that the Assembly has
permanently lost a quorum after 26 of 51 councillors resigned in
April, which is why it was unable to verify the mandate of the HSS
councillor. The opposition believe the assembly is unable to work
or make decisions.
On behalf of the HDZ bench, Ivo Sanader said violence against
democracy had been committed in the Osijek-Baranja County Assembly
and requested of parliament to credibly interpret the situation. He
also demanded of the government to dissolve the Assembly and carry
out new elections.
Should the government and parliament fail to meet those requests
the party will reconsider its future activities in and out of
parliament, said Sanader.
Supporting the HDZ, Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), the Libra party,
the Liberal Party and the Croatian People's Party believe that the
right to a mandate is guaranteed by the law, namely that a party can
replace a councillor with another person from its list without
special verification. Those parties say that everything else is
politicising the entire matter.
MPs continued to accuse each other during individual debates.
Branimir Glavas of the HDZ accused the ruling coalition of violence
which will not be tolerated for long.
(hina) it