ZAGREB, August 30, 2018 - Darko Milinović, a candidate for the head of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) branch in Lika-Senj County, said outside the party's main office in Zagreb on Wednesday evening that he and his supporters had been assured by the party leadership that local elections for the head of the county HDZ branch would be held on September 9.
Milinović and about 200 HDZ members from Lika-Senj County arrived in Zagreb in four buses earlier in the day to express their dissatisfaction with a delay in the local party elections.
After his statement, Milinović and his supporters left the HDZ headquarters.
Milinović told reporters that the HDZ commissioner for Lika-Senj County Darko Nekić had confirmed to him that the elections would be held on September 9. He said that he was not afraid of election defeat and called on all party members in the county to go to the polls, withstand any pressure, "and vote according to their conscience."
Milinović said that he was confident that he would beat his rival Marijan Kusić.
Speaking of the statement by Karlo Ressler, a member of the HDZ's central election commission, that the meeting with Milinović and his supporters at the party's headquarters did not take place as no conditions had been created for it, Milinović said this was spin and that he and his supporters visited the party headquarters to be given an explanation as to why party elections in Gospić had been postponed three times.
He dismissed his rival Kusić's statement that local party elections had been postponed because party members had received threats from various sides, adding that tensions did exist given that there were two candidates for the post.
A source in the HDZ leadership told Hina later in the evening that Milinović was manipulating the public and trying to depict his defeat as a victory given that elections for the head of the HDZ's county branch had been scheduled for September 9 "even before his bus democracy".
