When Seat Becomes Hot

One Sabor seat is going to become very hot for DC, small Croatian right-wing party and member of governing coalition. It is not that party's only seat – the one won by current justice minister and party chief Vesna Škare-Ožbolt (Vesna Skare-Ozbolt). This is one that party was supposed to win but failed.

Ante Mrdeža (Ante Mrdeza), hotel owner from Dusseldorf, is suing DC because he had donated some 100,000 € to the party in an exchange for a Sabor seat. Mrdeža claims that the contract was signed on September 18th 2003, two months before the elections. He paid the sum and got No. 4 slot on DC candidates' list in First Electoral District (Zagreb). It was expected that the seat would be won by former foreign minister Mate Granić (Mate Granic) who was leading DC at the time. Mrdeža was supposed to replace Granić in Sabor following the election victory and Granić's return to Foreign Ministry.

However, as the regular readers of this blog know, DC has seriously overestimated their electoral chances. That party was left with a single seat and Granić, himself losing a seat, resigned from party chairmanship. New leader Škare-Ožbolt apparently had little inclination to pay Mrdeža back and Jutarnji list reports that this whole affair might end up in court.