OSCE PUBLISHES RESULTS OF SEPT ELECTIONS IN MOSTAR

MOSTAR/SARAJEVO, 21 Oct (Hina) - International organisations in the area of Mostar on Tuesday held a press conference at which they presented a document saying that in the September local elections for Mostar Town Council, the Coalition for Integral and Democratic Bosnia-Herzegovina, led by the Party of Democratic Action, (SDA), had won 15, while the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in Bosnia- Herzegovina had won nine seats. Officials in the Mostar office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said tonight that those data were not official as they had not been verified by the Provisional Election Commission in Sarajevo. The OSCE officials in Mostar asked reporters not to name data from today's document as official in their reports (15:9 in favor of the SDA Coalition). Some ten days ago, the OSCE published election results for Mostar, saying that the Coalition for Integral and Democratic Bosnia- Herzegovina, led by the SDA, had won 14 and the HDZ 10 seats in the Town Council. A Croat member of the Provisional Election Commission, Mirko Boskovic, did not want to put his signature on those results. During the past ten days, HDZ officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina have repeatedly protested against such allocation of mandates in the Town Council, stressing it was illogical as the HDZ in Mostar had won some 12,000 votes more than the SDA Coalition. They demanded that such allocation of seats be changed. However, international representatives persevered in demanding that such election results (14:10 in favor of the SDA Coalition) be implemented, since, they stressed, the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina envisaged that each of six Mostar municipalities, regardless of its size, should have four mandates in the Town Council. The HDZ election headquarters stresses that the HDZ in Bosnia- Herzegovina would have won 15 and the SDA Coalition nine mandates in Mostar Town Council, had the criteria of proportional allocation of mandates been applied, as is the case in all other Bosnian municipalities. OSCE spokesman in Sarajevo, Johan Verhayden told Hina Tuesday that the Provisional Election Commission had already declared election results in Mostar. This is our official standpoint at the moment and we have nothing to add to it, he said. (hina) mm rm . 212052 MET oct 97