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Chiefs of State and Heads of Government
Foreign Affairs
International Organizations

LETTER N° 24

From 11 to 17 of June

11

Costa Rica

Fuerza Democrática (FD) leads district primary elections.Voters in Costa Rica's Puntarenas province were scheduled to go to the polls on Sunday,

11

Syria

First Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam becomes acting president.

11

Yugoslavia

Montenegro

Local elections in Podgorica and Herceg Novi, Montenegro.on June 12 reported that no official results were available from the election in the two cities. The Montenegrin election commission said early Monday it had only counted 28 % of the ballots in Podgorica and claimed to have no figures from Herceg Novi. Supporters of Montenegro's pro-Western president, Milo Djukanovic, said their own poll watchers reported they had won 28 of the 54 municipal posts in Podgorica. Followers of Milosevic's ally, Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, claimed they secured 19 of the 35 seats in Herceg Novi

12

Canada

Alberta

Alberta, Provincial by-election in Edmonton-Highlands. The New Democratic Party held on to a seat in a provincial by-election Monday, the first time voters have gone to the polls since Alberta passed a controversial law expanding private health care. Brian Mason, a former city councillor, easily defeated five other candidates in the riding of Edmonton Highlands. His closest contenders were Liberal Terry Kirkland, a former member of the legislature, and Conservative Barbara Fund. Both lost by more than 3,000 votes.

12

Poland

Janusz Steinhoff is appointed vice-prime minister.

12

Azerbaijan

By a vote of 86 to three with six abstentions, deputies on 9 June passed in the third and final reading the controversial amendments to the law on the Central Electoral Commission. Those changes stipulate that one third of the commission's 18 members will be proposed by the majority Yeni Azerbaycan party, one third by parliamentary deputies from the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front and Azerbaijan National Independence parties, and the remaining third by independent parliament deputies.

12

United Kingdom

Wales

Jill Evans MEP has announced that she is to stand for the post of President of Plaid Cymru the Party of Wales. The leader of the Plaid Cymru Group in the European Parliament will challenge Ieuan Wyn Jones and Helen Mary Jones for the post.

12

Ghana

Ghana's reborn Convention People's Party (CPP), originally founded by nationalist independence leader Kwame Nkrumah, has chosen a professor of anthropology as its candidate for the December 8 presidential election. The nomination of George Hagan, 61, at a congress that ended on Sunday, took to five the number of declared candidates for the election. Political analysts say the CPP is not likely to pose any threat to the main parties.

12

Poland

A national convention of the Democratic Left Alliance on 11 June endorsed the re-election bid of incumbent President Aleksander Kwasniewski. "We have achieved numerous successes together, we will win this time as well," Kwasniewski told the convention of the post-communist party, which he headed from 1990-95 and transformed into a European-style social democratic force. A late-May poll showed that Kwasniewski would win 70 % of votes, while independent candidate Andrzej Olechowski gained 10 % support and Solidarity leader Marian Krzaklewski 4 %.

12

British Columbia

Taking a page from the federal Reform party, the B.C. Reformers have decided to launch merger talks with the province's other right-wing parties. At their annual general meeting in Vernon over the weekend, the party's 150 delegates voted almost unanimously to begin negotiating a possible merger with the Social Credit party, Family Coalition party, B.C. Progressive Conservative party and the B.C. Party. The Conservatives, Socreds and Family Coalition party have already passed motions of their own to move forward with merger talks.

13

Solomon Islands

Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu resigns.

13

Tunisia

awaiting

Former foreign minister (1986-87) Hedi Mabrouk dies.

16

Poland

Bronislaw Komorowski is appointed defense minister.

16

Peru

Former prime minister (1991) Carlos Torres y Torres Lara dies.

17

Togo

Mr. Harry Octovianus OLYMPIO, former Minister for the Promotion of Democracy and Human Rights has been dismissed.The charge of Human Rights and the Promotion of Democracy is hence subordinated to the Justice Department.