KLEIN EXPECTS DECISION ON CALLING ELECTIONS IN NEXT 24 HOURS

ZAGREB, Feb 10 (Hina) - Asked when elections would be held in the Croatian Danubian area, in an interview with the Croatian Television central news broadcast on Monday, the Transitional Administrator of the area, General Jacques Klein, said that he was expecting that Croatian President Franjo Tudjman would made decision on this matter in next 24 hours. We had planned to hold elections in early spring. This had been our goal, together with the completion of the military mandate of UNTAES by July 15, he added. I had long talks with the President and told him how far we had reached in planning, documents issuance and registering of voters. It is up to him to decide on the date, he said. Klein added that for him it was crucial that elections in eastern Slavonia may be held simultaneously with elections in other parts of Croatia so as to show that the area was really reintegrated. He stressed that this was very important. Klein added that international standards should be respected during the elections in order that it could be confirmed that elections were fair. Asked how the issuance of the Croatian documents was progressing he replied that everything was going well, although there are problems. He cautioned that there were some people among local opposition such as the mayor of Vukovar, Keravica, who had ordered other mayors not to cooperate with the UNTAES and added that local leaders had no right to deny to other people the right to have better future. Commenting on reports that Bosnian Serb are planning to come to the elections (in eastern Slavonia) in busses, Klein said they could not vote. Everybody who arrived in the Croatian Danubian area after 15 January 1996 could not go to the polls, he added. Klein portrayed the cooperation between the Transitional Administration and Croatian authorities as very good. He said that UNTAES enjoyed full support of the Security Council, which was outlined in the Presidential Statement. Therefore, we could go on with elections, Klein said and pledged to conduct fair, open and just elections. He envisaged that those would be good elections which would be internationally recognized. Asked what he could tell Croatian displaced persons when they would return to their homes, he reiterated this was the year of return. If we had elections in early spring, our goal was to restore Croatian rule in the area by the beginning of summer, he said. (hina) mm mš 102159 MET feb 97