POLITICS-CROATIA: Voters Prepare For Presidential Polls

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric-Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Jan 28 2000 (IPS) - Croats go to the polls in February to elect a new president.

The battle will be between Stipe Mesic (65) and Drazen Budisa (51) whose parties defeated the ruling nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in the parliamentary elections earlier this month.

The elections, scheduled for Feb 7, will be a re-run to this week’s presidential polls, in which there was no clear winner. In the poll, Mesic won 41.64 percent of the votes, Budisa 28 percent, while HDZ contender Granic managed to obtain only 21.69 percent, according to the Electoral Commission. It put the turnout at 64.27 percent, while turnout in the parliamentary elections was 76 percent out of some 4.2 million voters.

“People are tired of elections, there is evidence of voter fatigue”, Marijan Ramuscak, president of the Electoral Commission said this week. “Besides, the weather is bad and a lot of people are suffering from flu”.

Croatia has witnessed snow storms since Saturday (Jan 22), with the daily temperature falling to minus 10 C. Flu also has hit the country in the past few weeks.

The bad weather and the flu don’t seem to discourage the top contenders. “We are opening a new page of Croatian democracy, which has matured,” said Mesic after the voting results were announced. “This is the end of a catastrophe called HDZ, that monopolised Croatia for ten years”.

If elected president on Feb 7, Mesic said: “I’ll be the corrective factor for the government and people in power. I am definitely different from Tudjman”.

Ten years of HDZ and president Franjo Tudjman’s rule were authoritarian. Tudjman, who led Croatia to independence from former Yugoslavia, died on Dec 10. Constitution of Croatia provides for unlimited presidential powers, something which the six opposition parties, backing Mesic and Budisa, have vowed to reform.

“The candidates have all said that they would not use all the powers provided by current constitution,” Vlatko Pavletic, the interim President, who succeeded Tudjman, told Croatian Radio- Television (HRT) this week.

Budisa, who is a joint candidate for the powerful Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) and Social Democratic Party (SDP), said he was “optimistic” ahead of the second round, hoping that the 35 percent of voters who did not show up would vote for him on Feb 7. He also added that he did not have “an intention to re- design” himself.

Budisa’s comment followed widespread belief that Mesic, a bulky, witty and talkative person won the high percentage of votes due to his charisma. Mesic was member of HDZ and prime minister of Croatia, but left the party because of Tudjman’s ambitions in Bosnia. He was also the last president of former Yugoslavia (from May to October 1991), when the country was already falling apart.

Budisa, an intellectual, is a typical Zagreb gentleman, uneasy with crowds. He has published more than 40 research studies on history and culture of Croatia.

Both Mesic and Budisa have biographies typical for Croat nationalists, persecuted by the regime of the late Yugoslav president Tito. In 1971, at the time of the so-called “Croatian Spring”, both spent several years in prison for their nationalistic tendencies. But both are far from HDZ and its intolerant nationalism.

“If I win, I’ll be the president of all people in Croatia” Mesic said in an interview with Belgrade independent weekly Vreme. “The rule of law in Croatia should enable its Serbs to return”.

Tudjman’s regime was criticised by the European countries for preventing the return of some 200,000 Serbs who left Krajina region in 1995, after their rebellion was crushed by Croatian army. Tudjman’s meddling into neighbouring Bosnia’s affairs added to the international isolation.

“The policy of grabbing somebody’s lands has disappeared with its creator, Tudjman,” Mesic told Vreme. “Croatia will never again support any artificial state or para-state like ‘Herzeg-Bosnia'”. Croats in Bosnia, backed by Zagreb, carved out their ‘state’, undermining Dayton Peace Accords for Bosnia-Herzegovina, causing further isolation of Croatia.

Both Mesic and Budisa have something in common that appeals to voters. Neither has become rich during the past ten years, when Tudjman and his ruling circle profited enormously. This happened at a time when Croatia had an unemployment rate of 20 percent and foreign debt of nine billion U.S. Dollars.

Mesic still lives in the same flat as in 1991 – in Ilica, the main street of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Budisa has a modest three-bed-roomed flat in a satellite neighbourhood of Zagreb. Both have promised to their voters that they would remain in those flats if elected, contrary to Tudjman and his ruling elite that bathed in luxury.