RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 75, 20 April 1998

SLOVAK LOCAL COUNCIL DEFIANTLY HOLDS REFERENDUM. Ignoring
Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar's warning, the local council
in Sturovo held a referendum on 19 April on electing the
country's president by popular vote and on joining NATO (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," 16 April 1998). Mayor Jan Oravec said
that turnout was some 50 percent and that of the 5,000
people who participated in the plebiscite, 70 percent voted
in favor of direct presidential elections. He provided no
other details, Reuters reported. Sturovo has a large
Hungarian ethnic majority, but the local authorities deny
accusations by pro-Meciar forces that Hungarian nationalists
were behind the non-binding referendum. The central
authorities in Bratislava refrained from dispatching police
forces and the army to prevent the plebiscite from taking
place, although they were publicly urged to do so by Meciar
supporters. MS

MORE HUNGARIAN CANDIDATES REGISTER AT LAST MINUTE. The
Central Electoral Office on 17 April announced that with the
deadline for registration now passed, a total of 1,603
candidates representing 26 political parties have been
registered for the upcoming elections (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 17 April Only the Socialists and the Smallholders
will field candidates in all 176 constituencies. The Free
Democrats are running in 175 electoral districts, followed
by the Young Democrats-FIDESZ (173) and the Democratic Forum
(172). In another development, People's Party chairman Ivan
Szabo on 17 April announced he is suing Democratic Forum
chairman Sandor Lezsak, who recently told the weekly "168
Ora" that before Szabo left the forum in 1996, he had
"robbed it." MS

HUNGARY, ITALY, SLOVENIA SET UP PEACEKEEPING FORCE. Italian
Defense Minster Benjamino Andreatta and his Hungarian and
Slovenian counterparts, Gyorgy Keleti and Alojiz Krapez, met
in Udine on 18 April and signed an agreement on establishing
a joint peacekeeping brigade, Hungarian media reported. The
three countries' parliaments must ratify the accord. Keleti
said the force will be ready for deployment by mid-1999 at
the earliest. It will be under Italian command, while the
deputy commander post will rotate between Hungary and
Slovenia. MS

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