The Prime Minister Goes to New York, Elections on November 25

The President of the Republic and the Government, Stjepan Mesić and Ivo Sanader, agreed today that Prime Minister Sanader will represent Croatia at the UN General Assembly in New York on October 15, and it was also agreed at the meeting that parliamentary elections will be held on November 25. “The Prime Minister will go to that meeting as he announced,” President Mesić told reporters after the meeting at Banski dvori, noting that he had previously agreed with Sanader over the phone about who would go to New York.

"I objected that we had not agreed on this earlier, and now we have agreed," Mesić added, emphasizing that there will be no more disagreements regarding the trip to New York. The President of the Croatian Parliament, Vladimir Šeks, who also attended the meeting, informed reporters that the state leadership agreed today that the elections will be held on Sunday, November 25, and that the President of the Republic will call them on October 17, from which the 14-day deadline for submitting electoral candidate lists begins.

He announced that he would dissolve the Parliament on Friday, October 12, and that the election campaign would start on November 3, after All Saints’ Day, and will last for three weeks. Prime Minister Sanader stated that the Government will continue to work until the new government takes the oath after the elections, and that it will likely continue to meet once a week. When asked whether the letter from the President of the Hague Tribunal, Fausto Pocar, to the UN Secretary-General represents pressure on Croatia, Sanader replied negatively, emphasizing that this document "cannot harm Croatia in any way."

He added that the President of the Hague Tribunal has every right to send a letter to the UN, and that Croatia has the same right, which it has exercised, not mentioning that the Government sent a letter to the President of the Hague Tribunal, but that it will only publish it after the Hague prosecution files an appeal against the first-instance verdict on the "Vukovar Three." Sanader reiterated that he expects the Court to accept the appeal, and that "the criminals from Vukovar will be appropriately punished." Mesić emphasized that Croatia has every right to comment on the verdict and to say that it disagrees with it, regardless of the fact that it is not final.

"When it comes to a verdict that concerns an entire nation, one cannot remain indifferent," he stated. Šeks reported that the Parliamentary Committee for the Constitution and Rules of Procedure will discuss tomorrow the initiative of several parliamentary parties to change the rules by which electronic media monitor the election campaign. Sanader said that the HDZ will support this proposal if all parliamentary parties agree with it, but he also assessed that, in his opinion, it is not good to change anything related to electoral issues just a few weeks before the elections.

"Elections are a celebration of democracy, and we must allow everyone to express their opinions on all topics that interest the Croatian public," Sanader said, assessing that Mesić would have had less chance in the 2000 presidential elections if different rules had applied. When asked whether the electoral rules were changed just two days before the dissolution of the Parliament in 2003, Sanader replied that if a mistake was made in 2003, it does not have to be repeated today. (Hina)