Headlines
- OSCE invited the citizens of the RS to register themselves for the forthcoming parliamentary elections
- The last party discussion before tomorrow’s election for the mayor of BL
- Greek summer resort ‘Agija Plagija’ in the spotlight of tomorrow’s first summit of Balkans countries
- Over 100 people died in eastern Africa due to the flood
Today OSCE invited the citizens of the RS who didn’t take part in the local elections to register themselves for the forthcoming extraordinary elections in the RS. OSCE stated that the citizens can register themselves for the Nov. 23rd elections till Nov. 6th this year. For this reason we invited Mr. Ostoja Kremenovic , the president of the Council for the internal policy of President Plavsic, to our studio.
SRT: Can you tell us what is this all about? Are they trying to correct them for being injust towards one category of the citizens of the RS?
Ostoja: Exactly. President Plavsic and some other officials of the RS had objections to the application of the article 10 b of the rules and regulations. They had objections on the way it was applied to the local elections. That way of applying was depriving one number of the citizens of the possibility to vote. The citizens who haven’t been able to register in the municipalities were the citizens who haven’t been able to prove their continuous residence from July 31st 1996 in the municipalities where they are living presently. For the most part those people are displaced persons who were moving from one to another municipality of the RS. OSCE offered to the authorities of the RS, taking into consideration the assessment that the worries for this category of voters are legitimate, to help in the process of identification of those voters in order to make possible for them to participate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
SRT: Today is Nov. 2nd and the deadline is till Nov. 6th . Isn’t that a very short period of time for carrying out this complicated procedure of registration?
Ostoja: President Plavsic was informed yesterday about this. In the course of the next day we will inform the TEC and the REC which are out on the field. We think that regardless of the shortness of the deadline, counting on the high political consciousness of our voters, we will manage to complete this job till Nov. 6th .
SRT: Do you have information on the number of those voters? Ostoja: That number is very significant, but we don’t have it. The TEC and the REC have it.
SRT: Mr. Kremenovic, answer my question: Can this right to vote be misused?
Ostoja: OSCE will protect itself from misuse of the right. Only those who were on the final voter’s lists for the local elections in the RS and in the municipalities of the RS will be able to use this right. So, the citizens who were not living continuously in the municipality of the RS from July 31st 1996 do not have this right. This refers also to the citizens of Federation of BiH and to those living outside of FBiH and RS.
SRT: We cannot forget on this occasion the Serbs from RSK who fled to the RS due to the Croatian occupation. Will they finally get their basic citizen right to vote for the RS, where they decided to live? Ostoja: Those elections are the elections which are to be conducted according to the rules and regulations which are not the regulations of the RS. Future elections are going to be conducted according to our regulations and they will surely include the citizens who fled the territories of the Republic Croatia and other republics of the former Yugoslavia.
5:25
The forthcoming parliamentary elections are drawing little reactions of the world media. The most often determinations are that the IC would be satisfied if none of the parties won the majority. The unity of the Parliament would be weakened in that way, creating firm national programs would be difficult and also the way to the coalitions that would easily accept the unity of BiH would be open – assess the world’s agencies.
The IC and it’s representatives are not hiding that their economic help to the RS will depend in the future on the results of the parliamentary elections and on the implementation of the DA which was confirmed in BL by the European Commissioner Hans Van de Broek.
1:46
Today’s working session of the political parties didn’t give the expected response.
The president of the SPRS confirmed that the socialists are going to stand for the Statute of the city. The representative of the Serb party for Krajina and Posavina said that they will say something more about their candidate for the first man of BL tomorrow, before the Assembly session.
1:02
Desires of the refugees to return to their hometowns are warming up the ideas on the exchange of the territories. After frequent manipulations concerning the exchange of the villages in the Serb municipality of Ribnik for the territories of the municipality of Sanski Most in Federation, the president of the municipality of Ribnik Jovo Banjac sent a letter to President Plavsic and Carlos Westendorp protesting against the decisions of the Government of the RS on the exchange of these territories.
On behalf of 10 500 citizens, Jovo Banjac is asking President Plavsic and Westendorp to do everything in order to annul the decision of the Government.
A letter of the Association of the refugees and displaced persons of the Serb villages under Grmec arrived to SRT studio. They are asking 30 villages where the Serbs used to live for centuries to be exchanged for some Moslem territories along the inter-entity line.
2:00
The practice of representing the Dayton BiH at certain sessions by Moslems, rarely by Croats, is repeating. SRT is asking the correspondent from Greece: Do you know how the man who is going to represent Dayton Bosnia was chosen, considering that the arrival of Haris Silajdzic was announced, but not as the coo-presiding of the Council of Ministers but as the non-existing Prime Minister of BiH?- Correspondent: I have to say that neither reporters and monitors from here know that. Actually the participation of Bosnia was not in the lists offered by the State agencies. Two days before the conference it was mentioned in some news that the representative of Bosnia is going to be the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mihail Malbasic.
4:55