DAMIR ZORIC COMPLAINS TO OSCE ABOUT POSTPONEMENT OF B-H ELECTIONS

ELECTIONS $ ZAGREB, 26 August (Hina) - Following announcements that elections in B-H might be postponed, Head of the Government Office for Coordination of Voting By B-H Citizens Temporarily Accommodated in Croatia Damir Zoric, sent a letter Monday to the OSCE representative in Croatia for B-H elections Tobias Wernel. In the letter Mr. Zoric expressed his concern with a growing number of announcements that voting in Croatia for the B-H elections might be postponed. Zoric stressed that there were no reasons for the postponement of voting in Croatia, not had there been any malpractice in registration of voters. The letter reads as follows: "We are concerned about a growing number of announcements that voting in Croatia for B-H elections might be postponed. In several meetings we have been told that voting should be postponed for security reasons and due to a large number of people in Croatia and Yugoslavia wishing to vote in accordance with form no. 2 (for B-H citizens wishing to vote outside of their original residence). In that respect I would like to inform you about the following facts: 1. Voting in absence for B-H citizens presently accommodated in Croatia (displaced persons and other B-H citizens with domicile in Croatia) can take šlace in complete safety at all the 86 polling stations earmarked for that purpose. Thus, safety, except in the case of a vis mayor, is not in question. 2. We are not aware of the number of B-H citizens presently accommodated in Yugoslavia, who have registered to vote for the B-H elections. However, in Croatia their number is rather limited and can be broken down as follows: As you know, 13,921 persons opted to vote in person in some of the B-H municipalities. That, however, does not mean that all of them which to travel to B-H on 14 September and vote in a municipality other than the one when they resided in 1991. More than 92 per cent of them have decided to vote in their native municipality. Namely, form no. 2 entitles a voter to cast his ballot either in his native municipality or anywhere else in B-H, and not only for the latter purpose, as was originally wrongly surmised. mr (Hina) 262205 MET aug 96