ZAGREB, March 14, 2019 - Parliament Speaker and HDZ party secretary-general Gordan Jandroković said on Wednesday, in a comment on an indictment against member of parliament Marijan Kustić, who headed the HDZ slate and won a recent election in Lika-Senj County, and who has been charged with causing a traffic accident, that it was not customary for officials to resign after legal proceedings were launched against them.
The prosecutorial authorities in Osijek earlier in the day indicted Kustić for causing a traffic accident in which two persons were seriously injured while the parliamentary Conflict of Interest Commission said that it would consider Kustić's failure to report a valuable watch in his declaration of assets.
"The proceedings have just been launched and it is not customary for officials to resign when proceedings are launched," Jandroković told reporters in Zagreb, adding that his comment was the same with regard to the indictment against Kustić. "... I think it would be best... to wait for a non-final and then a final verdict in order to be able to pass judgement," said Jandroković.
Commenting on the timing of the indictment, three days after the early election in Lika-Senj County, Jandroković said that he was confident that there had been no pressure and that all institutions that had to be autonomous operated autonomously. "I'm also confident that the ruling majority and the government do not exert any pressure," he said.
Asked if the HDZ would support the new budget of Lika-Senj County or if a new election would have to be held, Jandroković said that Kustić had made it clear several times that the first step would be to form the majority in the Lika-Senj County Assembly, after which decisions would be made.
Asked if the majority in the county assembly could be formed with former HDZ official and Lika-Senj County head Darko Milinović, considering that HDZ political secretary Lovro Kuščević had said that it was not an option, Jandroković answered: "If the political secretary has said so, why would the secretary-general's opinion be different?"
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