OSCE TAKES OVER B-H ELECTION MATERIAL FROM CRO COMMITTEE FOR ORGAN

ORGAN $ ISATION OF B-H ELECTIONS ZAGREB, 6 Sept (Hina) - The Croatian Committee for the conduct of Bosnian elections in Croatia on Friday submitted its election material to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). IFOR will transport 243 sealed bags containing election material to Sarajevo by plane. After the 14 September elections, the bags will be opened, the ballots will be mixed with ballots from other polling stations and counted. The Committee's head Damir Zoric said that 93,546 Bosnian citizens had taken part in the elections in Croatia, which was 79,7% out of 117,339 registered voters. Zoric said that OSCE had announced yesterday that the elections for Ravno municipality would be repeated on 14 September, at the same polling place in Dubrovnik. The elections for Ravno municipality will have to be repeated since the voters from Ravno received ballots for the Bosnian Serb entity. Zoric denied a statement by the leading Bosnian Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA) saying that the elections in Croatia had been irregular. The whole election process had been carried out publicly, Zoric said. Pre-election silence could not be introduced in Croatia since communications between Croatia and Bosnia, especially in the information system, was very simple. Party press conferences did not represent pre-election campaigning, but information activities, Zoric said, adding that OSCE had banned party organization but not 'information activities' in Croatia. OSCE representative Tobias Wernle repeated his estimation that Bosnian elections in Croatia had been organized and conducted in 'a fair manner'. The elections for voters from Bugojno and other towns which received wrong ballots would not be repeated since the number of those voters was very small, Wernle said. (hina) rm jn 061648 MET sep 96